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C0EHRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



ARABULA; 



OB, 



THE DIVINE QUEST. 



CONTAINING 



A NEW COLLECTION OF GOSPELS. 



BY 

ANDKEW JACKSON DAYIS, 

AUTHOR OP SEVERAL VOLUMES ON THE " HARMONIAL PHILOSOPHY. 



■ Within thee is the all-wise, ever-loving Arabula." 

Death and the After-Life, p. 88. 



V 



BOSTON: 
WILLIAM WHITE & COMPANY, 

158 WASHINGTON STEEET. 

NEW YORK: 
BANNEE OP LIGHT BEANCH OFFICE, 544 BEOADWAr. 

1867. 



y 



Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1S67, by 

ANDREW JACKSON DAVIS, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, for tne 

District of New Jersey. 



USTTRODUCTOEY. 



This volume is, to some extent, a continuation of the 
author's autobiography, entitled, "The Magic Staff." 
But, chiefly, it contains a faithful record of expe- 
riences which, it is believed, are far more representative 
than exceptional. The exceptions occur in that pri- 
vate realm where the individual differs, as each has an 
undoubted constitutional right to differ, from every 
other. 

A new collection of living Gospels, revised and 
corrected, and compared with the originals, is herein 
presented to the world. 

The alternations of faith and skepticism, of lights and 
shades, of heaven and hades, of joys and sorrows, are 
familiar to the human mind. The causes of these 
mental states are considered. 

May the Arabula be unfolded in the heart of every 
reader. 

A. J. 13. 
New York, Nov. 4, 1867. 



INDEX TO THE GOSPELS. 



CHAPTER L. 



CONTAINS INSPIRATIONS FROM THE FOLLOWING NEW SAINTS: 



PAGE 

gt. Rishis 303 

St. Menu 308 

St. Confucius 310 

St Siamer 312 

St. Syrus 313 

St. Gabriel.... 315 

St. John 317 

St. Pneuma 319 

St. James 323 

St. Gerrit 324 



PAGE 

St. Theodore 326 

St. Octavius 3,0 

St. Samuel 332 

St. Eliza 334 

St. Emma 336 

St. Ralph 338 

St. Asaph 340 

St. Mary 342 

St. Selden 345 

St. Lotta 353 



THE ARABULA. 



CHAPTEE I. 

THE LAMENTATION. 



Oh, the heartless contradictions in human nature! 
Man, in his present state, is only a tamed savage. His 
best development of civilization rests upon a broad and 
ever-enlarging basis of brute instincts and savage attri- 
butes. All his monumental labors for the world's 
advancement are mixed with the unsubdued and un- 
disguised propensities of selfishness. Civil society is 
but an entangling medley of antagonistic self-interests 
and immoral expedients. 

Therefore no man is happy. Selfishness, the primal 
instinct, drives happiness out of the temple. The 
perplexities and contradictions of selfishness generate 
excessive laws in the tyrannical intellect. O, the death- 
less anguish of the wounds inflicted by man's struggling 
passion for wealth and power ! His blunders and blind- 
ness are forgiven; but his lynx-eyed, self-justifying, 
willful intellect, which would crush millions to gain 
power and wealth, is anathematized and forever ex- 
cluded from heaven. 

And what is man's knowledge ? Who believes that 



6 THE ARABTTLA. 

it is wise ? The millions walk in the false and hollow 
thoroughfares of ignorance and priest-supported super- 
stitions. Mammon-serving myrmidons crowd upon the 
paths of selfish knowledge. Ignorance first builds light- 
excluding palaces, and then dedicates them to the mys- 
teries of an impracticable religion. And man, in the 
plenitude of his shameless inconsistencies, prides him- 
self upon his devotion to mystery. With commanding 
dignity, he styles his religious mystery, a Knowledge 
of God's Will." Wherefore, in the boundlessness of 
his ignorance, he assumes the possession of rare intelli- 
gence. The slanting rays of science, a sun that has not 
yet risen, he applauds as the full blaze of absolute truth. 

Moralists disappoint their intimate acquaintances. 
Their virtues are best seen in the shrouding profundi- 
ties and hair-splitting distinctions they exhibit in the 
science of morals. They exhaust themselves in preach- 
ing and expounding the laws of virtue ; they consign 
the duty of practicing morality to the uneducated mul- 
titude. The profoundest theorist in morals is impelled, 
by an ever-increasing tendency, to transgress, in daily 
dealings, his fundamental maxims of justice, truth, and 
virtue. The primal instinct of selfishness surmounts 
and crushes the holiest proclamations of eternal truth. 

The contradictions of human nature cover the earth 
with a blighting, desolating darkness. A man who 
preaches the precepts of peace is not often a comfort to 
his family. His wife is a great skeptic in his theory. 
Her eye is upon the manifestations of the eloquent 
expounder's life. Peace-laden principles flow out from 
Ms word-skilled tongue, and the tender glances of pure 
and undefiled religion fall from his heaven-lifted eyes ; 



THE LAMENTATION. 7 

yet his family, sailing in the weather-beaten bark of a 
selfish society, compounded of conflicting interests, long- 
ing for love to direct the helm, can remember the trials 
and wonnds of fierce wars at the fireside. 

If you want Justice, do you appeal to robed and 
ermined power in the State? If you seek Keligion, do 
you adopt as final the magnificent mummeries and 
cabalistic ceremonies of the Established Church % If you 
seek consistency, do you take as its embodiment the man 
of civilization ; only a tamed savage, with positive 
selfish instincts, and the profoundest intellectual disre- 
gard of others' rights and liberties % 

Crucify the redeemers of the world ; put them through 
nameless miseries ; banish the reformers into intermi- 
nable mountains of frost, desolation, and sorrow ; kindle 
the fagots of wrath about the pioneers of infinite bene- 
fits ; condemn to dungeons the brave heroes who have 
resisted the organized selfishness of powerful govern- 
ments ; starve the saviors of slaves, who have, during a 
sad lifetime, toiled without reward, under the blistering 
lash of crime-promoting task-masters ; turn deafened 
ears to the sighs of fallen women, who have, under the 
magnetic touch and bewildering persuasions of hypocriti- 
cal love, erred within the burning passion of some self- 
gratifying human savage ; cover, with inextinguishable 
contumely and misrepresentations, the fearless teafiher, 
who would overthrow the world's errors in religion, 
bring a rational conception of God, and initiate princi- 
ples of higher degrees of existence. O, intelligent, sel- 
fish, tyrannical, savage, contradictory man ! What shall 
increase your capacities for consistent, benevolent, mag- 
nanimous living ? 



8 THE ARABULA. 

Most vulnerable is he who makes boast of his high 
impregnability. No man is more cowardly than he 
who prides himself upon his valor. The immeasurable 
fool is self-sustained with the sweet consciousness of 
being the wisest man in town. The richest merchant 
in the city cannot afford the luxuries common in the 
household of his chief clerks. The inimitable comedian, 
whose simplest speech and gesture convulse with merri- 
ment an audience of two thousand intelligent people, is 
the epitome of independent and incurable melancholy. 
The infinitely happy lady, whose street habiliments and 
evening-party deportment are unapproachably perfect, 
carries a heart well-nigh bursting with wounds and 
disappointments. The honest citizen is unjustly living 
upon heavy profits filched from the daily toil of hope- 
less men and women. The virtuous trader gratifies his 
savage rapacity by overpassing the boundaries of justice 
in every bargain with less keen, but really honest men. 
The pious preacher, whose voice is for the extermina- 
tion of sin and every other form of evil, is profane when 
anathematizing the enemies of his creed. The politi- 
cian is the faithful servant of the State so long as the 
emoluments and accruing fame are commensurate with 
his magnanimous selfishness. The physician's interests 
are inseparably allied with the pecuniary health of his 
patents. The family of a professional philanthropist is 
most threatened with visitations of poverty and inhuman 
neglect. An eloquent champion of the equal self- 
ownership and political rights of women, was a tyrant 
at home, trampling upon the personal liberties of his 
resistless wife, and giving his sons an education superior 
to his daughters. 



THE LAMENTATION. V 

O, the contradictions of human nature! Might is 
mistaken for right ; brute force is made to do the work 
of love ; folly is substituted for the hints of wisdom ; 
hypocrisy is more fashionable than innocent virtue; 
whited sepulchers attract thousands of worshipers, who 
habitually neglect the temple of the spirit; wealthy 
vice is more courted and sustained than poor virtue ; a 
bold robbery is sparingly punished, while the half- 
famished outcast is imprisoned for petty larceny. A 
crazy actor is murderously executed for a single assas- 
sination, while an intelligent plotter of a nation's destruc- 
tion, in whose war-prisons loyal soldiers are dying inch 
by inch, with the unutterable pangs of hunger, and 
with the nameless agonies of disease, is granted the 
freedom of the world ; while the rich are growing richer, 
in the very heart of a so-called Christian civilization, the 
poor are becoming poorer; and crime and misery pre- 
vail where peaceful industry and progressive happiness 
might exist, 
l* 



10 THE AKABULA. 



CHAPTEE II. 

REFLECTIONS. 

Inquietude pervaded my thoughts — feelings freighted 
with concernment, not for myself — a holy seriousness 
full of prayer, to learn the causes of man's universal 
selfishness. 

Is selfishness a fundamental principle of human na- 
ture ? Is the foundation of man's mind composed of 
incurably self-seeking and savage instincts ? The bloody 
wars — do they originate in principles of war in human 
nature, or do these cruelties crop out of conditions and 
circumstances ? Does man err only ; or, as some affirm, 
does he sin ? He acquires knowledge through reflec- 
tion and experience ; but why does he employ his 
knowledge to accomplish his selfish ends ? If the selfish 
instinct is the basic law in man's mental constitution, 
can the originator of such a crude and cruel constitu- 
tion be revered as a power of perfect wisdom and perfect 
goodness \ "What are called man's innocent and rational 
amusements ? Such as baiting the hook and jerking 
from their native element the beautiful fish ; or hunting 
to death the affrighted hare ; starting savage dogs after 
the foxes ; slaughtering the graceful and harmless deer ; 
shooting the singing robins and the playful squirrels ; 
running horses until the innocent animals drop dead ; 
or brutal men fighting with each other like goaded 
beasts ; or men of this breed training dogs and cocks to 



REFLECTIONS. 11 

enter the ring and to fight until one or the other dies, 
applauding meanwhile with howlings and .profanities 
too fierce and maddening to be repeated. 

Distressing and disgusting as all this is, yet the depth 
of man's brutality is not reached until he tramples upon 
woman; when, taking diabolical advantage of her weak- 
ness and timidity, he bends and breaks her upon the 
wheel of his ungovernable lust. "No theorizing or phi- 
losophizing can mitigate the unutterable treachery of 
such a man. He covers his nature with the corrupting 
blight of an unpardonable sin. The beasts of the field 
and the fowls of the air are spotless angels compared 
with him. 

Man's injustice to children, too, is unspeakably de- 
testable. They are born from the unseen world of 
causes, are gentle as evening music, bringing into em- 
bodied life the infinite possibilities of deathless exist- 
ence ; but selfish man treats them as interlopers and 
unwelcome servants, whips them instead of reasoning 
with their intuitions, stifles their sobs with his fist, and 
fills the heaven-life of the little angel with lamentations 
too sad for the long-suffering heart of woman to bear. 

Are these accumulating evidences of man's inborn 
selfishness insurmountable % Can you give any relief to 
your doubts ? The construction and capabilities of his 
mind — its immense breadth, its grasp of thought, its 
intellectual abilities to meditate, plot, elude, attack, 
retreat, countermarch, counterfeit, decoy, capture, im- 
prison, assassinate, burn, rob, murder, and end in sui- 
cide; all this, taken together, apparently gives an over- 
mastering weight of evidence deplorably against the 
redemptibility of human nature. 



12 THE ARABULA. 



CHAPTER III. 

THE PRAYER. 

With thoughts and feelings overwhelmed and inter- 
tangled by the foregoing reflections, and fatigued with 
waiting for responses to interrogatories so earnestly put, 
I entered the secret closet of the more interior, and 
prayed — 

" Heavenly Father ! Hear, I beseech thee, the spirit 
of the words I would breathe in thine ear. 

" O, Fount of Eternal Good ! Lift from before mine 
eyes the vail of mysteriousness, which shuts out of my 
understanding the light, by which I would behold, 
divested of errors and uncertainties, the unbroken bene- 
ficence of thy government. 

" Spirit of Infinite Truth ! O, breathe upon my mouth 
once more, and aid my tongue to utterance ; inspire 
my bosom with the myriad tendencies of wisdom ; make 
my blood instinct with thy universal laws ; and impart, 
O, I pray thee, to my brain the balance whereby truth 
can be weighed as by the hand of Justice ; and to my 
heart, whose chambers are filled with thy love, an 
insight that shall discern thee at all times and in all 
things. 

" Father of All ! O, let me fearlessly approach thee, 
as a son would in reverential love draw nigh unto his 
earthly parent, and ask for divine light and unselfish 
knowledge. Humbly I would ask — Is the universe 



THE PRAYER. 13 

perfect in thy sight f Was the universe any less per- 
fect millions of centuries ago ? Will it be any more 
perfect millions of years hence ? Answer, I beseech 
thee, O, Fountain of Knowledge ! Didst thou fore- 
know all things from the beginning ? And before thou 
filledst the world with forms and animation, didst thou 
foresee the selfishness of mankind ? Didst thou make 
man to follow the impulsions of passion — to grow in 
intelligence and in experience, and to profit by both in 
devising ways and means to overreach and cruelly to 
trample upon the rights of his fellows ? 

"Beveal thy Truth, O, Eternal Source of AH things ! 
Enlighten * man's reason with thy reason ! Give of 
thine abundance. Shine like a sun of everlasting right- 
eousness. Let, O, let mine eyes behold the consistency 
of thine attributes. Make me to see how perfect Love 
could consent to fill the world with suffering ; how per- 
fect Goodness could originate a being so savage and 
selfish as man; how perfect Wisdom could have justi- 
fied itself in constructing a nature apparently so imper- 
fect as man's ; how perfect Justice could institute a 
fixed government in which the strong is permitted to 
crush the weak ; how perfect Truth could ever be tri- 
umphant in a universe where hypocrisy is fashionable, 
and false professions succeed on every hand ; and finally, 
I pray, O, Father of All! to comprehend how perfect 
Power can exist in thy nature, and, with thine other 
perfect attributes, suffer to be perpetuated, year after 
year and age after age, the innumerable evils and mis- 
eries which afflict the human race. 

" O, help me to bear my part of life's work. Strengthen 
my heart with increasing love toward earth's wretched 



14 THE ARABTTLA. 

millions. Guide to my side the feet of some angel mind, 
so that I may be taught the lessons of infinite truth. 
Help all who struggle into the light ; and bless, with 
the fullness of an everlasting blessing, all thy children 
everywhere." 



LIGHT IN DARKNESS. 15 



CHAPTEE IV. 

LIGHT IN DARKNESS. 

Many days and nights have I waited, overshadowed 
and darkened in spirit — waiting for some response to 
my prayer. I look with dismay on the dense and 
stifling atmosphere pervading the wretched and suffer- 
ing world of human nature. I behold the dark breath- 
ings of universal selfishness — poisoning the very air 
with evil emanations — blinding, polluting, degrading, 
and filling with torment and consuming anxiety all 
human hearts. 

The gates of wealth are closed against the poor and 
desolate. Sin and error walk abroad hand in hand. 
They enter the temples of religion, and worship openly 
the crafty supporters of superstition. Ignorance, selfish- 
ness, grossness, materialism, sensuality — the evil spirits 
of civilization, dressed in the bright livery of wealth and 
fashion — reside like princely demons in every human 
habitation. Dwarfed and deformed, and burdened with 
the mournful consciousness of living unworthily, appear 
the people of every clime and country. 

My inmost heart, I feared, was, with its latent ener- 
gies and fond affections, rapidly withdrawing its sensi- 
bilities from mankind. For days did this heavy weight 
rest upon my mind. "What a mournful gloom ! I began 
to imagine that every person meditated mischief to pro- 
mote selfish ends. It seemed to me that craftiness and 



16 THE ARABTJLA. 

over-reaching keenness of perception were the chief 
characteristics of my fellow-men. I felt miserably hope- 
less ! The world was so crowded with sin, error, dis- 
ease, wretchedness. Hell was not so bad, after all ! 
The saving ordinances and fiery doctrines of the most 
fanatical adherents of orthodoxy seemed less offensive. 
Without a shudder, I cried " fire !" " fire !" — the fire 
which burns as an oven — the burning hell of God's 
consuming vengeance — not too hot a fate for the beasts 
and brutes and demons that make up the human race. 

At length, after so long a night, blacker than Egyp- 
tian darkness, a grayish morning light streamed into 
my soul's wilderness. For days and days I had but 
feeble and shadowy gleams from truth's altar-fires. 
There was no depth, no breadth, no vitality to my 
thoughts. A miserable irresolution, an uncontrollable 
chaos, a feeling of vague foolishness, and a dreary faith- 
lessness, not to say worthlessness, pervaded and pos- 
sessed my entire consciousness. Wails of grief, sugges- 
tions of indescribable despair, indifference toward my 
dearest friends, an irresistible impulse to fret and quar- 
rel with my circumstances — these, and unnumbered 
other psychological states and temptations, accompanied 
the approach of light. 

My prayer was still unanswered. But " the answer 
will surely come /" I will possess my soul in patience. 
A mysterious presence, like a divine and immortal 
essence, floats in upon the whispering air. Surround- 
ing forms and familiar objects seem more interesting. 
Trees and shrubs in the garden, little flowering vines 
by the window, the grasses on the lawn, the plumage 
of birds in the cherry-trees, and the faces of my asso- 



LIGHT IN DARKNESS. 17 

dates — all things, both present and distant, seemed 
touched and bathed with a sweet and tender li°;ht as 
from the morning stars. 

The refinement and beauty of this experience surpass 
the power of language. Slowly, day by day, during 
weeks of waiting and searching, the transforming light 
crept in — so stealthily, at times, and so exquisitely sen- 
sitive did it seem to be to the least interruption, I was 
many times troubled with fear lest it would be with- 
drawn. It came upon me as sunlight gradually works 
its way into the buds of little flowers in early spring- 
time. My blindness was almost imperceptibly removed. 
The vast void of space was being filled with the light 
of innumerable worlds. It rolled over the earth like 
the enkindling breath of God. The watch-fires in all 
human hearts burned with melodious effulgence. Men's 
minds seemed to bloom with a holy significance, and 
the life of the whole humanity emitted a fragrance that 
suggested the celestial and everlasting. The effect of 
the light was like enchantment. The whole world was 
pictured as in a mirage ; lakes, groves, forests, castles, 
oceans, cities, delightful landscapes, villas, beautiful 
mansions, and the peoples of all lands walking by 
streams, or working in green pastures, toiling in fields 
and in stores and factories, cultivating the hills, gar- 
denizing the islands — all came up by the mirage-law 
of reflection, and seemed as perfect in the immediate 
atmosphere as the same delightful sceneries and human 
beings would appear were they presented in an extended 
landscape within reach of your ordinary sight. 



18 THE AKABULA. 



CHAPTEB Y. 

THE CONFLICT. 

Under the enchantment of the Light, which I have so 
imperfectly described, the whole world seemed a fruitful 
and ever-blooming land of inconceivable beauty and 
immortal delights. I yearned to dwell forever in the 
magnetical radiance of that celestial Light. My inmost 
feelings glowed responsive to that incomprehensible 
golden illumination. And yet, I was not at rest ; was 
far, far from the happiness I sought. 

True, my feelings, which had grown misanthropic 
and indifferent toward humanity, were lifted from their 
dark and dismal dungeons of doubt, to a youthful love 
of every thing human. But my intellectual principle, 
which had covered my soul with a shroud of wintery 
clouds, had not been answered. By its cold, accurate 
perception of facts, I realized that men are selfish, false, 
crafty, hypocritical, brutal, diabolical. With Shelley, 
I acknowledged that "War is the statesman's game, 
the lawyer's jest, the priest's delight, and the hired 
assassin's trade." 

Thus, while in heaven's holy radiance which shone 
upon my heart, my intellect continued in painful dark- 
ness. The insignia of death appeared along the blood- 
covered pathway of empires. Cupidity and ambition, 
with robbery and death, looked out from every throne. 
Crowned heads, inspired by pride and thirst for power, 



THE CONFLICT. 19 

the root of which is selfishness, forcing millions of men 
into opposing armies, intent npon each other's destruc- 
tion ; while the kings and emperors, safe in strong cas- 
tles above the work of death, look exultingly down npon 
the smoky scene of young men, husbands and fathers, 
struggling, shrieking, bleeding, slaughtering, cursing, 
despairing, dying ! "With my intelligence I perceived 
these unspeakable calamities all through human his- 
tory — the manifestations of man's selfishness, savage 
cruelties, and brutal instincts. 

'Tis said that there is a joy in grief when peace dwells 
in the breast of the sad. " But sorrow wastes the sor- 
rowful," said Ossian. " They fall away like the flower 
on which the sun has looked in his strength,* after the 
mildew has passed over it, when its head is heavy with, 
the drops of the night." And such, consuming sorrow 
was mine, day by day, although the Light with peace- 
ful radiance continued to shine upon every thing around 
me. Have yon not had a conflict between your heart 
and head ? Has not your bosom said " yes " to what 
your brain said "no?" Had I believed in "faith," as 
thousands in the world's pagodas unquestioningly do, 
bow easily could I have reposed my restless intellect. 
But I could in principle surrender no part of my con- 
sciousness to the bewitchments of sentimentality and 
hopeful faith. Once, yea, often, I had clearly seen, as 
I thought, the solution of the problems now beclouding 
and acidulating my being. Perhaps, methought, my 
bodily condition is unholy. This reflection recalled the 
saying of Pythagoras : " That whatsoever obstructs 
divination, or is prejudicial to the purity and sanctity 
of the mind, to temperance, chastity, and habitual 



20 THE ARABTJLA. 

virtue, should be shunned ; also that which is contrary 
to purity and defiles the imagination at any time. That 
the juvenile age should make trial of temperance — this 
being alone of all the virtues, alike adapted to youths 
and maidens and women, to all of advanced life ; and 
that it comprehended the goods both of body and soul, 
and also the desire of the most excellent studies. He 
thought boys were especially dear to divinity, and ex- 
horted women to use words of good omen through the 
whole of life, and to endeavor that others may predict 
good things of them." Again, one of his disciples has 
said : " Our first duties go abreast, comprehending the 
care of the mind along with the body. Parents are 
protectors of families and States ; they stand for com- 
fort, for nobility ; for earth-husbandries and man-cul- 
ture, not as Cattle Gods and Pantry Providences only ; 
but for State and family interests largely considered 
and beautifully combined ; for temperance, for thrift, 
humanity, and the future." Investigation, however, 
assured me that the conflicts were not caused by my 
habitual drinks and foods ; but that I would find the 
true causes of my trouble in the selfishness and limita- 
tions of intellect. 



THE TRANSFOKMATION. 21 



CHAPTER VI. 

THE TRANSFORMATION. 

The conflict continued, day by day, until the Light 
had almost gone ! The fierce war of selfish intelligence 
and unselfish intuition. The preponderance of intellect 
was massively on the side of debasing selfishness and 
all-absorbing personal interests. 

Yet, thanks to Omniscient goodness ! under the sun- 
light stealthily slipped the supernal star-shine of imper- 
sonal purity and unmixed justice. It flooded the fields 
under the -sunlight, so to speak ; it lifted the colors of 
flowers ; it flowed, like a river of liquid jewels, over the 
wavy bosom of streams ; it made music in the careless 
songs of wild birds ; it spread a carpet of velvety gold 
under the living green grasses of field and lawn ; it 
loaded the air with holy, healing fragrances, like the 
breathings of unnumbered flowers ; it cushioned, with 
bright green mosses, the cold stones by the roadside; 
it diffused a sacramental wine through all the waters 
of well and spring ; it poured a glorious Sabbath through 
the hours of every day; it emitted marvelous music 
through the ^Eolian harp of wide-spread elms, and 
dark, tall -pine-trees ; it imparted an indescribably lov- 
ing tenderness to the voices of my friends; it filled 
with a beautiful gladness the laughter of children ; it 
invested domestic animals with attitudes and expres- 
sions more wondrous and varied than was ever imagined 



22 THE ARABULA. 

by Phidias ; it changed all manhood into Apollos of 
matchless grace and beauty; and all womanhood it 
transformed into Minervas of wisdom, love, freedom, 
truth, purity, and harmony. And I prayed — 

" O, Omniscient Father ! I beseech thee to let this 
Light become part of my soul's possessions. With 
words, my soul can neither approach nor worship thee ; 
with thoughts, I cannot tell the boundlessness of my 
tearful, joyful gratitude. Translate, O, I pray thee, all 
these wonder-working living lessons into my reasoning 
faculties. Permit me, very reverently, to perceive 
intellectually the plenitude of the truth within this 
Light." 



WEIGHED IN THE BALANCE. 23 



CHAPTER VII. 

WEIGHED IN THE BALANCE. 

The blissful hour lived in that world-lifting Light 
made the succeeding hours — when Intellect was pre- 
eminently positive, politic, active, and selfish — exceed- 
ingly dark and dismal. 

O, the memory of the pain of that reaction ! What 
despairing disappointment, when, coming out of the 
enchantments of that holy Light, I realized that my 
thoughtful brain was not nerved anew, as I had so fer- 
vently prayed and hoped, for the impending conflict of 
the Eight against the Wrong. 

Indeed, I was alarmingly proud and willful. To 
the Truth I had no objection, if it only came as I 
wanted it; if it was not inconvenient ; and if it did 
not command me to sacrifice any worldly possession or 
personal comfort. And thus I reasoned : 

There is no disguising mankind's groveling and re- 
volting selfishness. Prominent influential men — capi- 
talists, monopolists, slave-dealers, money-changers — are 
heartless, cruel, villainous. What care they for the 
divine Light % " Practical righteousness," in the opinion 
of such stone-hearted oppressors, consists in systemat- 
ically worshiping the " almighty dollar," and construct- 
ing a Parthenon of aristocratic nabobs, by which the 
poor working classes shall always be kept poor, and all 
through the strong arm of the church and government. 



24: THE ARABULA. 

If I turn reformer, I must breast all this mighty array 
of money and interlaced power. In place of " money" 
I must offer Man ; in place of " falsehood " I must pre- 
sent Truth / instead of " fashion " I must preach Free- 
dom ; I must substitute for " lust " the holy principle 
of Love ; instead of " war," my voice must ever be for 
Peace / and in place of " parties " in government and 
" sects " in religion, I must insist upon unmixed Prin- 
ciples, and the familyhood and equality of all members 
of the human race. 

" What !" indignantly exclaimed I — " Does the re- 
former's work require me to breast this " stupendous 
opposition ? Am I called upon by an incomprehensible, 
an unreasoning, a mysterious ' Light ' to take a public 
stand, like a living monument of sacrifice, or like a 
target, inviting the arrows of every popular pimp of 
church and government, and receiving the bitter scorn 
and unconcealed contempt of every urchin, because he 
is safe in the fortifications of established society ?" 

The prospect was becoming darker and darker every 
moment. And the Light ! Alas, that was gone ; and, 
what is worse, I scarcely remembered it ; my intellect 
was keen, and so logical ! So capable of philosophizing 
on the question of duties and consequences ! My under- 
standing of men, and my knowledge of the fate meted 
out to the world's saviors, cautioned me. " Don't make 
a sacrifice of the best years of your life, Jackson," wisely 
whispered my bright and practical intellect. And thus 
it continued, looking every moment more and more like 
the sovereign pontiff of worldly sagaciousness. 

" Now examine the question in all its bearings. Of 
course, being benevolent, you love humanity, and wish 



WEIGHED IN THE BALANCE. 25 

it well, and all that. Sentimental young men usually 
experience impulses of generosity, and ofttimes long to 
engage in deeds of disinterested benevolence, but a few 
years of contact with the solid facts of the world effectu- 
ally dissipates their reformatory propensities. In fact, 
if you can but wait ten years, he who was an ardent 
reformer at twenty-five, will unblushingly decline tak- 
ing an open, active part in unpopular questions. In 
substance he will confess, thus : — 

" * True, I love freedom ; I think slaves are human 
beings, and therefore ought not to be held in bondage ; 
I am progressive in sentiment — but, but, but I can't 
act with you ; indeed, I am deeply engaged in the 
church ; I am very much engrossed with our political 
party ; I am absorbed in business ; in other words, I 
have taken unto myself a wife, and therefore cannot 
come? " 

"Why, my dear Sir," continued the wise-headed 
magistrate, " your common sense of what is prudent 
and expedient will convince you that your demand, that 
educated, professional, and business men should be 
reformers, is, in the extreme, absurd. They are in- 
volved in new interests, have taken unto themselves 
wives, and have devoted their talents and energies to 
new responsibilities. This is about what the best of 
men, once warmly engaged in reforms, will, with some 
sarcastic mortification, privately confess : ' Oh, I cannot 
but think favorably of your reforms, although I dare 
not publicly avow my favorable opinion. Yet I am so 
absorbed in what the world calls religion ; so intent in 
looking after God's interests and glory, I cannot attend 
to man's wants and interests ; and inasmuch as I have 



26 THE ARABULA. 

sold myself — soul and body — to my party, sect, and 
business interests, together with my desire to attain 
wealth and social position, I cannot engage in that 
which is unpopular, and which requires earnest thought 
and manly action.' " 



BECOMING AN ATHEIST. 27 



CHAPTEE Till. 

BECOMING- AN ATHEIST. 

The Light ! The Light ! Where is it ? O, where 
is that river of celestial amber which flowed like music 
through the meadow slopes ; which so illuminated and 
pictured the earthly solitudes ; which wreathed willowy 
groves and pond-lilies in dreamy beauty ; which brooded 
over the boughs of trees, like the golden haze of autum- 
nal splendors ; where — O, where is the Light that filled 
all the world with clusters of eternal love and beauty? 
O, soul-enchanting Light ! O, kindling, unfolding, float- 
ing, flooding, pleading, saving Light ! Where art thou % 
Without thee I am covered with a thick cloud of intel- 
lectual selfishness — verily, I am plunged in a bottomless 
vortex of " outer darkness," where naught is heard but 
the fiendish conflict of human passions, the murderous 
antagonisms of strong men against strong men — an 
outer world of woe and hopelessness, with " weeping 
and wailing and gnashing of teeth." 

I have prayed — with my whole intellect and heart, I 
have prayed. Why am I not answered ? If there is a 
God, if, in the far-off immensity, there is an intelligent 
Omniscient brain, called God, why, in God's name, does 
not that brain answer my brain's questions f Why does 
not God's heart give rest to my painful heart ? Truly has 
it been said, " by searching none can find out God." 
Why not, if there is a God ? Is it not true that the 



2© THE ARABULA. 

most strenuous God-believers confess that it is only a 
belief with them ; that they really know nothing on the 
subject? Where shall we search for the existence of 
God ? Enter the material world ; ask the Sciences 
whether they can disclose the mystery? Geology 
speaks of the structure of the earth, the formation of 
the different strata, of coal, of granite, of the whole 
mineral kingdom. It reveals the remains and traces of 
animals long extinct, but gives us no clue whereby we 
may prove the existence of a God. 

Natural History gives us a knowledge of the animal 
kingdom in general ; the different organisms, structures, 
and powers of the various species. Physiology teaches 
the nature of man, the laws that govern his being, the 
functions of the vital organs, and the conditions upon 
which alone health and life depend. Phrenology 
treats of the laws of the mind, the different portions of 
the brain, the temperaments, the organs, how to develop 
some and repress others to produce a well-balanced and 
healthy condition. But in the whole animal economy 
— though the brain is considered to be a " microcosm," 
in which may be traced a resemblance, or relationship 
with every thing in Nature — not a spot can be found to 
indicate the existence of a God. 

Mathematics lays the foundation of all the exact 
sciences. It teaches the art o combining numbers, 
of calculating and measuring distances, how to solve 
problems, to weigh mountains, to fathom the depths of 
the ocean, but gives us no directions how to ascertain 
the existence of a God. 

Enter Nature's great laboratory — Chemistry. She 
will speak to you of the various elements, their com- 



BECOMING AN ATHEIST. 29 

binations and uses, of the gases constantly evolving 
and combining in different proportions, producing all 
the varied objects, the interesting and important phe- 
nomena we behold. She proves the indestructibility 
of matter, and its inherent property — motion ; but in 
all her operations no demonstrable fact can be obtained 
to indicate the existence of a God. 

Astronomy tells us of the wonders of the Solar 
System — the eternally revolving planets, the rapidity 
and certainty of their motions, the distance from planet 
to planet, from star to star. It predicts, with astonish- 
ing and marvelous precision, the phenomenon of 
eclipses, the visibility on our earth of comets, and 
proves the immutable law of gravitation, but is entirely 
silent on the existence of a God. 

In fine, descend into the bowels of the earth, and 
you will learn what it contains ; into the depths of the 
ocean, and you will find the inhabitants of the great 
deep; but neither in the earth above nor the waters 
below can you obtain any knowledge of His existence. 
Ascend into the heavens, and enter the " milky way," 
go from planet to planet to the remotest star, and ask 
the eternally revolving systems, "Where is God ? and 
echo answers, "Where % 

The Universe of Matter gives us no record of his exist- 
ence. Where next shall we search? Enter the Uni- 
verse of Mind, read the millions of volumes written on 
the subject, and in all the speculations, the assertions, 
the assumptions, the theories, and the creeds, you will 
find that Man has stamped an indelible impress of his 
own mind on every page. In describing his God, he 
delineated his own character; the picture he drew 



30 THE AEABTJLA. 

represents in living and ineffaceable colors the epoch 
of his existence — the period he lived in. 

It was a great mistake to say that God made man 
in his image. Man, in all ages, made his God in his 
own image; and we find that just in accordance with 
his civilization, his knowledge, his experience, his taste, 
his refinement, his sense of right, of justice, of free- 
dom, and humanity, — so has he made his God. But 
whether coarse or refined ; cruel and vindictive, or kind 
and generous ; an implacable tyrant, or a gentle and 
loving father; — it still was the emanation of his own 
mind — the picture of himself. 

It is pretended that God made man perfect. But 
after he pronounced the world "good," which included 
the human pair, he suddenly found that man was des- 
perately wicked ! Then it is pretended that God in- 
vented different plans for the redemption of man. He 
first tried the universal flood-process ; but the human 
world was not one whit improved. Then he was forced to 
resort to the last sad alternative of sending " his only- 
begotten son," his second self, to save mankind. Bat 
alas ! "his own received him not," and so he was obliged 
to adopt the Gentiles, and die to save the world. Did he 
succeed, even then '] Is the world saved ? Saved ! from 
what ? From ignorance ? It is all around us. From 
poverty, vice, crime, sin, shame, and misery? They 
abound everywhere. Look into your poorhouses, your 
prisons, your lunatic asylums ; contemplate the whip, 
the instruments of torture, and of death ; ask the mur- 
derer, or his victim ; listen to the raving of the maniac, 
i he shrieks of distress, the groans of despair ; mark the 
uruel deeds of the tyrant, the crimes of slavery, the 



BECOMING AN ATHEIST. 31 

suffering of the oppressed ; count the millions of lives 
lost by fire, by water, and by the sword ; measure the 
blood spilled, the tears shed, the sighs of agony drawn 
from the expiring victims on the. altar of fanaticism ; — 
and tell me from what the world was saved. And 
why was it not saved? Why does God still permit 
these horrors to afflict the race ? Does omniscience not 
know it % Could omnipotence not do it ? Would in-' 
finite wisdom, power, and goodness allow his children 
thus to live, to suffer, and to die ? JSTo ! Humanity 
revolts against such a supposition. 

Look around you, and confess that there is no evi- 
dence of intelligence, of design, and consequently of a 
designer ? I see no evidence of either. What is intel- 
ligence ? It is not a thing, a substance, an existence in 
itself, but simply a property of matter, manifesting 
itself through organizations. We have no knowledge 
of, nor can we conceive of, intelligence apart from 
organized matter ; and we find that from the smallest 
and simplest insect, through all the links and gradations 
in Nature's great chain, up to man — just in accordance 
with the organism, the amount, and quality of brain, so 
are the capacities to receive impressions, the power to 
retain them, and the abilities to manifest and impart 
them to others, — namely, to have its peculiar nature 
cultivated and developed, so as to bear mental fruits, 
just as the cultivated earth bears vegetation — physical 
fruits. Not being able to recognize an independent 
intelligence, I can perceive no design or designer except 
in the works of man.* 

* The foregoing is the substance of a Lecture by Mrs. Ernestine L. 
Rose, delivered in Boston, Mass., 1861. It is an able and eloquent 
statement of the argument for Atheism. 



32 THE ARABULA. 



CHAPTER IX. 

PARTS AGAINST THE WHOLE. 

Embodiment of all wisdom, is the human Intellect ! 
Its conceits are stupendous, its grasp is gigantic, its 
sublimations of argument truly marvelous, its self- 
importance — ah, that is greatest of all ! 

Intellect, knowledge, is, after all, but one-third of 
that wondrous organization called the human mind ; 
and it is also the poorest third of the conscious men- 
tality; and, for this reason, probably, it is the most 
pedantic and self-asserting. The roots of intellect 
[Knowledge, see Gt. Har. vol. 4, el seq.~] start from 
Experience. The trunk, branches, and fruit of the 
knowledge-tree, constitute Memory. Of itself destitute 
of vitality. Its possessions are acquired from the realm 
of things without. Much knowledge in a man's mind — 
the details whereof have no existence save in Memory — 
is like much furniture in his house. It may serve him, 
and promote his selfish interests, or it may oppress and 
stultify his entire nature. Unfashionable knowledge is 
as mortifying to pride as are unfashionable clothes, or 
furniture in the mansion out of date. 

The highest discovery of intellect is fragmentary and 
fleeting; the hour-fact rooted in the hour-experience; 
the rest is the chance that, through memory and judg- 
ment, the individual may be profited. Only a higher 
faculty than intellect in man can discern the limits of 



PAETS AGAINST THE WHOLE. 33 

the powers of his intellect. The voice of the whole 
nature can alone reveal what the whole nature yearns 
to possess. The whole can alone sit in judgment upon 
the testimony of the parts. The intellect can in its own 
right freely criticise, condemn, or justify the instincts ; 
but the instincts have the advantage of being radicals 
(or roots), while intellect is nothing but the furniture 
and accumulated trappings of sensuous experience. 
The instincts naturally rise, like birds of paradise, into 
the mind's higher imponderable atmosphere ; and there 
they rapidly change from " creeping things " into angel- 
winged estuttioxs, with clairvoyant powers and bound- 
less aspirations. The policies and limitations of intel- 
lect shrink away from the higher powers like affrighted 
fowls beneath the lofty courage of the soaring eagle. 

These reflections disturbed my atheistic conclusions, 
but these reflections did not come until I had passed 
through what is described in the next chapter. 
2* 



34 THE AEABULA. 



CHAPTEE X. 

THE AEABULA. 

For a few days I was mentally plethoric with the 
intellectual negation of atheism. While puffed with 
this self-satisfying conviction, that I had argumenta- 
tively annihilated the stupid superstition of a God, 
I enjoyed my mind comfortably. The idea of seeking 
" Light " out of the usual course was given up forever ; 
and with it went the correlative idea of sacrificing my 
personal interests to promote the interests and happi- 
ness of others. My conclusion was, " I will do what I 
can for others' benefit when it does not cost me more 
than others bestow ; in other words, I will do all I can 
consistently with my idea of the opportunities and 
abilities I may have for doing." In short, my philan- 
thropy was narrowed down to thinking benevolently and 
acting as selfishly as any Turk or Christian in the 
neighborhood. 

Alas! what darkness settled upon my feelings. 
Wretchedness was my lot. One day I walked away, far 
away up the mountain — a godless and hopeless mortal ; 
and there, away from the world, and forgetting my pro- 
found atheistic arguments, I bowed my spirit in prayer ! 

" Light, more Light !" was the burden of my suppli- 
cations. 

My temples throbbed with birth-throes ; and my 
unhappy heart, weighed down with feelings of unfaith- 



THE AEABULA. 35 

fulness to truth, seemed to lose its pulsating power ; 
my breath was suspended, and a holy silence reigned. 

Lo, the Light ! In a moment it seemed to flood the 
mountains with an indescribable glory. Through 
green meadows, overflowing waters, between the 
overhanging branches of forest- trees ; everywhere it 
floated and tremblingly baptized the world. 

My intellect was for a brief period marvelously 
enlarged, or, rather, lifted into a new perception of 
things. I thought of resisting, but my will was not 
with my thought, and so, like a bird in the viewless air, 
I sped away into the light — into the light ! 

Strange to relate ! My thoughts roamed over pas- 
sages in different books, in which the expression 
" light " occurs, and with the expression I instantly 
comprehended an impressive signification. " The light 
of wicked men shall be put out." The truth of that 
I had tested ; for when I was selfish, I was in darkness. 
" To the upright ariseth light in darkness." That was 
my experience then. " Thy light shall break forth as 
the morning." I prayed that it might be so. "Let 
your light shine before men." My intellect said, " No ;" 
but the remaining two-thirds of my being said, " Yes." 
"What communion hath light with darkness?" I 
thought there could be no intercourse between the two 
states. " God is light, and in him is no darkness." I 
prayed to dwell in Him for evermore. 

While occupied with these passages and meditations, 
and breathing joyful thanks for my deliverance, I heard 
a voice, saying, " I am Arabula ; I am the light of the 
world ; he that followeth me shall have light and life ; 
he that loveth me keepeth my commandments." 



THE ARABULA. 



CHAPTER XI. 



TEE MYSTERY. 



That night I could not sleep. A new problem was 
pressing for solution. O, that low, sweet voice ! That 
still, small voice ! Was it spoken by the tongue of 
some personality? What angel -lipped being was it 
that said, " I am the light of the world ?" As I heard 
it I seemed to be sitting by the ancient fountains of 
inspiration. The infinite presence of an indefinable 
intelligence brooded lovingly upon all around me. 
The distance-softened music of the human world, like 
the breathing whisperings of gently waving pine-trees, 
floated through the trembling air, and rilled my recep- 
tive soul with brave and faithful love toward the 
family-hood of man. 

Delightful and chastening as was my experience, 
and fresh and youthful and new-born as were my feel- 
ings, yet the problem — " Did that low, sweet, still 
small voice come from the mouth of a person ?" — pre- 
possessed my thoughts. It did not sound like a human 
voice, nor like the voice of any spiritual personage, but 
rather like the voice and language that one's imagina- 
tion might give to flowers; or like, in your fancy, 
making the air to think and speak as though it were a 
person. There was in that voice the vagueness I have 
described, but in no other respect or quality. By 
association of ideas, very naturally, my mind could not 



THE MYSTEEY. . 37 

but think of " Jesus." Sacred history records that 
such a personage made use of many of the words I 
heard. 

But the expression, " I am Arabula " — words which 
seemed, like the others, to have spontaneously formed 
themselves in my mind as the true definition of the 
quality of the Light — started the whole train of ques- 
tions now under review. 

Can a person be everywhere at the same moment ? 
Is it possible for a person to flood the whole world with 
Light? Can a person be omnipresent in history? Could 
a person have taught the primeval Greek intelligences, 
Socrates and Plato, intuitively to know all wisdom? 
"When Prometheus lay chained to the rock, and the 
Muses were instructing the gods, and the colossal Sphinx 
of black basalt in the Libyan Mountains was being 
sculptured to represent what is inscrutable and inexo- 
rable in the universe, was all the Light in the brains 
and bosoms of men derived from one person ? 

The serious-hearted world is yearningly praying for 
Light. " I am the light of the world," says the Ara- 
bula. "He that loveth me will keep my command- 
ments.'* This Arabula is the world's religious mystery. 
It appears in the philosophical, moral, and spiritual 
teachings of Persians, Indians, Chinese, Jews, Greeks, 
Romans, Christians. It is peculiar to no people ; to no 
religion ; to no sect of believers ; to no epoch or era in 
human history. It invariably enters the world by birth 
of a virgin state of mind ; it performs wonders in heal- 
ing the sick ; it is powerful in overthrowing kingdoms ; 
it everywhere dies upon the cross ; and it, for a time, 
leaves the world by ascending above the world. It is 



38 ' THE AEABULA. 

worshiped as a God by some ; is denounced as a Devil 
by others. It is practically peaceful ; yet it divides fam- 
ilies, sunders States, and destroys governments. It loves 
the companionship of the down-trodden and wretched ; 
yet it enters the temples of rich priests, and holds con- 
troversies with the chief dignitaries of the empire. It- 
is powerful with words; preaches sermons on mountains 
and in cities ; fearlessly rebukes sin, forgives the lost 
women ; stills the tempest, brings the dead to life ; and, 
lastly, having no power over evil chieftains of the State, 
it falls into the hands of executioners, and dies, forgiving 
its enemies and blessing every thing human. 

Is this mystery a person ? Do you not perceive its 
presence in all the good men do, and in all the truth 
they speak ? When a volume of Light shines into the 
world, regardless by whom or by what it shines, do you 
not discern the same qualities, though differing in 
quantity according to person, circumstance, condition, 
or country ? Verily, in all this there is a mystery ; which 
demands research and further elucidation. 



MOUNTAIN MEDITATIONS. 39 



CHAPTER XII. 

MOUNTAIN MEDITATIONS. 

Feom wanderings long and wild, from society and its 
mockeries, from selfish thought and bitter speech, I 
come, like an over-wearied child, to live forever in the 
Eternal Life of God. The soft, low voice, that still 
whispering witness in my heart, calls me, and — I come, 
I go, I am thine. 

Henceforth, whatever is selfish will be visited with 
my fiercest anathema. The soul that would live for 
itself alone, is a libel on God's noblest work. The 
stagnant pond is typical of selfishness. It is still and 
slimy, and gathers to itself from earth and sky, giving 
nothing freely but disease and death. Selfishness is 
morbid and evil-thinking. It generates misfortune and 
diffuses the seeds of desolation. 

But hills and lakes and mountains are typical of 
benevolence and boundless hospitality. They welcome 
the world. The smiles of unnumbered suns lie upon 
their honest faces. Their palpitating bosoms are filled 
with the divine life. The winds breathe upon them. 
They tenderly touch every bending leaf and drooping 
flower. The songs of the day dwell among the hills. 
The ineffable melody of mountains is akin to the 
majestic anthem of ages. A sweet and pensive sad- 
ness floats into the listening soul. The ethereal music 
of harmonious dreams pervades the hills and the moun- 



40 THE AEABULA. 

tains. Like the incense of true worship from a thousand 
hearts, like the holj music of the world of celestial stars, 
are the sacred sounds of the everlasting hills. 

O, beautiful and grand is the vesper song of Nature. 
Let my spirit flow into thy spirit — my life and thine 
blend — my heart and thy heart be one through eternal 
ages. I would pillow my head upon thy bosom. My 
soul would inhale the immortal fragrance of thy bright 
and beautiful flowers. Amid thy grandeur my soul 
feels its divine origin, and holds unspeakable communion 
with immeasurable things. The breathings of the 
mountains are like the soundings of the distant sea. My 
soul catches the inspirations of long-departed ages, and 
my thoughts tenderly touch the thoughts of angels, who, 
with the light feet of dancers, tread the celestial moun- 
tains of light away in the clear blue. The sweet fresh- 
ness of their breath comes like the gentle ministrations 
of fields. The ringing brook and the singing bird come 
over the hills. The green arches of the woods are full 
of heavenly music. 

But the charity of mountains is vast and unsympa- 
thetic. Snow lingers long on their summits. Cold and 
frosts dwell with them. They breast the winter tem- 
pests, and keep the warmth of summer long waiting in 
the valleys. The sun smiles genially upon gentle slope 
and verdant vale, while the mountains catch few of his 
golden blessings. Yet the world without the templed 
mountains would be poor and mean. Overwhelming 
symbols of God's omnipotence are the earth's mighty 
masses of rocks, towering heavenward, clad with trees, 
and set amid lakes and fields of eternal beauty and 
abundance. They teach that nothing lives for itself. 



MOUNTAIN MEDITATIONS. 41 

They elevate man's soul to heavenly heights. Lowlands 
and murmuring brooklets receive their verdure and 
music from the mountains. Rain descends from lofty 
places. The gentle dew is distilled upon highest slopes. 
The teeming harvest-fields owe their wealth to the high 
lands and sterile peaks. 

Go upon the mountains, O my soul, and learn of God 
— the Universal Father and Friend — and of Nature — 
the Mother and Lover of countless hosts. Speak to 
me ! Tell me the sublime story of your origin. Lift 
my reason in gratitude to its divine source. Cause the 
lessons of infinity to occupy my thoughts. I would 
dwell with ye, O holy mountains ! There is grandeur 
in the expression of your significance. In the wildness 
and freshness of your unchangeable leisure my soul 
takes ineffable delight. Heaven's repose is symboled 
forth by your immovable stillness. The beautiful sky 
bends lovingly over ye — like the spiritual heights, with 
their unmeasured opulence, spanning the fields of Para- 
dise. The realms of the mountains, with their ever- 
lasting tranquillity, attract the lovers of wild woods 
and untraversed ravines. Earth's savage beasts cling 
to the mountains. The Father gave them his grandest 
forests. They roam amid waterfalls and roaring cataracts, 
sleep upon the shoulders of beetling cliffs, build their 
beds amid craggy gorges, on the sides of mountains. 
And wild fowls scream, while gentle birds .pour forth 
their harmonious melodies in wwshipful gratitude to 
the Infinite Father. They live and sing among the 
mountains, to help on the world of matter and mind. 
ISTot one lives for itself. The lesson of charity — of 



42 THE AKABTTLA. 

free and boundless benevolence — is taught by every 
thing. 

O, my soul, look up and learn of the mountains. Go 
upon the hills of God. 



HAPPINESS NOT COMPLETE. 43 



CHAPTEE XIII. 

HAPPINESS NOT COMPLETE. 

For many days after the interview with the mys- 
terious " Arabula," my whole nature seemed light as 
the air and thoughtless as an innocent child. Every 
thing was " good " — the night, for it brought out the 
holy stars — -pain, for it unfolded the rnfinite blessings 
of pleasure — selfishness, for it revealed the divinity of 
benevolence — hriers, for they shielded and protected 
flowers while blooming — skepticism, for it compels the 
soul to search and learn the lesson of fundamental 
principles — darkness, for it brings out the spirit's in- 
herent love of everlasting Light. 

And so I was exultingly enjoying religion ! I had a 
bewildering, dreamy, luxurious " faith in God," which, 
methought, nothing could disturb or darken. The 
familiar rills in the meadow laughed with joy. The 
abundant weeds in the garden were performing a hal- 
lowed mission. With new eyes I looked upon human 
wretchedness. I > was not troubled, although battle- 
arrayed men were that moment fiendishly slaughtering 
each other in bloody war! Trustingly and lovingly, 
like a child led by its fond and faithful mother, I 
walked with God in the flowery garden of all-har- 
monizing truth. And day by day I rejoiced exceed- 
ingly, was light and glad beyond expression. 



44 THE ARABTTLA. 

But, alas ! one morning I came from my slumbers 
with a heavy, cloud-covered heart. I could not account 
for it. "Am I not happy ?" thought I. "Have I not 
beheld the flowery mount of God's inextinguishable 
wisdom ? Do I not trust all his ways, and walk therein 
unquestioningly ?" And thus, in my unexpected 
wretchedness, I complainingly interrogated for the 
causes of the change in my feelings. 

Before the evening of that day, I had found the 
secret of my unrest and depression. It was this (and 
the confession is made with reluctance and mortifi- 
cation) : I was not cured of intellectual selfishness. 
Now, look at my case : I was happy, was comfortably 
and contentedly situated in my daily circumstances at 
home, was knowingly surrounded with the heavenly 
influences emanating from angel realms of life ; and 
thus (I fain would think), all unconsciously to myself, 
I was like a sordid and piratical miser, selfishly subor- 
dinating and appropriating the whole to my individual 
benefit and gratification. 

Concerning the world outside, I said : " Let the 
world take care of itself. It's all about right as it is. 
What's the use of fretting about what others say, or 
think, or do? Take care of yourself! If every one 
would but take care of one, and that one himself or 
herself, the world would get along comfortably, and 
everybody be contented and happy. Now, Jackson, 
don't disturb yourself about other folks' welfare. 
They don't care a farthing whether you live or die. 
Every one lives and dies on his own hook ! This effort 
of yours, to liberate by education the children of indif- 
ferent parents, who don't half protect and care for 



HAPPINESS NOT COMPLETE. 45 

themselves, is a mistaken benevolence. Yon can do 
better by looking after your own children. If you've 
got money to spare, spend it all on yonr own family ; 
make yonr garden beantifnl and yonr house elegant; 
indulge in a first-class horse and carriage ; wear plenty 
of the best jewelry ; and dress yourself and family in 
silks and fine linen, and eat and drink the best you can 
get. Yes, you've got 'the light' now; you are now 
happy ; now let well enough alone" 



46 THE AEABULA. 



CHAPTEE XIV. 

THE DIFFERENCE. 

My patient and thoughtful reader, doubtless, already 
understands my state better than I myself did. It 
must appear manifest that " The Arabula " had 
entered with truth's amazing splendor, and lifted my 
intuitions and affections far above the bonds and ties 
of the world ; had disintegrated my personality from 
all entangling terrestrial associations ; and had put me 
in sacred communication with the Divine Principle, 
which is the central good of all persons, places, times, 
institutions, religions, states, observances, impressions, 
convictions, and inspirations. 

But is it necessary to record that my Intellect — the 
third, poorest, experience-rooted part of man's mental 
structure — was not correspondingly unencumbered and 
enlightened. In that quarter I was not saved ; was 
still atheistic and selfish ; was local in my perceptions, 
temporal in my tendencies, and individual in my 
appetites and desires. Intellectually I could hold no 
rational communication with the rest of my conscious- 
ness. Therefore, as quick as the Arabula's low, sweet 
voice was still, the loud-mouthed words of pompous 
Intellect sounded authoritatively in my thoughts. In 
substance he said : 

" Be not deceived. Instead of solid argument beneath 



THE DIFFERENCE. 47 

you, and deductions based upon the experimental 
demonstrations of science, you go headlong into senti- 
mentality. Poetry is all well enough in its place ; so 
are painting and music — and the Fine Arts generally — 
very good pastimes ; but, man ! what can they give to 
satisfy your skeptical Intellect ? Come, stand up for 
yourself; look facts in the face, and confess there is no 
God." 

Thus Intellect, wily and unprincipled per se, per- 
plexed, pampered, and harassed me ; and O, how 
fearfully did its protests damage the touching, impres- 
sive teachings of Arabula ! 

The depredations and intimations of Intellect were 
fatal the moment I lost communication with the 
interior illumination. It seemed to me that this con- 
flict was unnecessary ; that it was attributable to lack 
of balance ; but, in this respect, I found that I had, in 
the world about me, plenty of company. 

And these counterparts, strange to say, were mostly 
in the churches. I noticed that there was so much of 
the world in the churches, it was impossible that the 
churches should ever improve the world. Selfishness 
had invaded the sanctuary. Every member was 
anxious to secure Ms own salvation, from the machi- 
nations of an imaginary personal devil (the personation 
of wily selfishness) and from an everlasting hell — the 
fabled conservatory of what was too bad to be redeemed 
by omniscient goodness. 

I noticed, furthermore, that the churches were sup- 
ported by men, who, bent on their own salvation, 
habitually shut their ears to the pressing wants of the 
world's working and hell-going millions. The churches 



48 THE AEABTTLA. 

claim to be the reservoir of all private worth, of all 
public virtue, of all sinless charity. But behold ! 
The broad, comfortable pews are loaded with the 
heartless devotees of hot -house aristocracy ; with com- 
mercial gamblers ; with the villains of speculation ; 
with languid, listless, indifferent, godless dyspeptics; 
with cloistered, convented, lip-serving dogmatists ; 
with atonement-seeking cowards of traditional piety, 
who dare not imitate the example of Jesus — the public 
physician, the unconventional preacher, the associate 
of publicans and sinners, the philanthropist, the open 
friend of the poor and unfortunate ! If religion con- 
sists in conveying, by acts, God's life into the life of 
society ; if it consist in enlarging and spiritualizing the 
streams of public morals; in ministering to the necessi- 
ties of the sick, the outcast, and in alleviating the con- 
ditions of the struggling millions of poor men and 
women ; in improving the structure of society, which, 
by its present selfishness and shameless injustice, gene- 
rates one hundred criminals to one saving angel ; if it 
consist in practical efforts to prevent the insane, rash, 
and reckless struggle for wealth ; in overcoming the 
heartless extravagance about the persons and in the 
homes of the so-called higher classes — if true religion 
consist in these works of righteousness, and in loving 
your neighbor as you love yourself — then, then — why, 
the plain truth must be acknowledged, there is no true 
religion in the established churches of the nineteenth 
century. 



A GEOGRAPHICAL GOD IMPOSSIBLE. 49 



CHAPTER XT. 

A GEOGRAPHICAL GOD IMPOSSIBLE. 

Any metaphysical revelation that violates the 
positive requirements of the intellect, is no aid to 
Iranian progress; yet, there is in man's mind a 
power — call it the intuition of all his thinking and 
feeling faculties — which transcends the perceptions, 
capacities, and attainments of his Intellect ; a faculty 
of Pure Reason, to which the knowledge-acquiring 
faculties are constitutionally subservient, while they 
protect and guard the whole mental nature from myths 
and sentimental delusions. 

The chief error of the religious world consists in 
heeding the mysterious intimations of the higher and 
intuitional, to the exclusion of the legitimate offices and 
truly friendly guardianship of the intellectual part. 
Hence the discrepancies and vagaries of supernatural- 
ism, so repugnant to every philosophical mind, because 
they are impossibilities in the very nature of things. 
The intellect has a self-ruling and self-governing power, 
which, while it brings to its possessor a sure and perfect 
knowledge of its own limitations, acts beneficially and 
conservatively in protecting the higher faculties from 
error and extravagance. 

It was an error in my interpretation of the " xlra- 
bula " to suppose that it was a person who addressed 
5 



50 THE AEABULA. 

me. And yet it said, or, rather, I made it say, " I am 
come a Light into the world, that whosoever believeth 
on me should not abide in darkness." In the 
presence of that illumination I realized the existence 
of a fundamental, unchangeable, and impersonal Prin- 
ciple — which also seemed like an invisible personage — 
which could, would, and did judge me not only, but all 
mankind, and also possessed the power of saving me 
and all who would love him (or it) and follow his (or its) 
commandments. Without Intellect I should hereafter 
be superstitious, and a believer in the supernatural; 
with it, guided by the more profound love of eternal 
truth, I am saved and reconciled. 

To say that the Light, which lighteth every man that 
cometh into the world, emanates from a person, is to 
annihilate all relation and proportion between cause 
and effect. Give God geographical limitations and 
you destroy his infinite existence; in other words, 
Intellect detects your absurdity, and proclaims your 
atheism. A special history, limited to time and space, 
with local associations and worldly events, are com- 
patible to finite beings. The shocking absurdity of 
Christendom consists in affirming the philosophical and 
scientific impossibility that the Infinite once had a 
local, special, finite expression. Until that stumbling- 
block is removed, there will be, in the religious and 
theological world, no progression. Intellect, without 
trying to enter the saving light-realm of Arabula, will 
advance tlft Arts and Sciences ; and, adhering reso- 
lutely to its positive requirements for experimental 
knowledge, will end in atheism, selfishness, and dis- 
gust 



IMPERSONALITY OF ARABTJLA. 51 



CHAPTER XVI. 

IMPERSONALITY OF ARABTJLA. 

Like the " desire of tlie night for the morning " was 
my persevering prayer for one prolonged communion 
with the white golden Light, which had burst through 
the selfishness of Intellect and enfranchised my being. 

One afternoon far spent, when the sun was gathering 
in its evening urn the ashes of its day of golden burn- 
ings, I walked to a sequestered seat beneath the dark 
maples, and resigned my soul to the voice of Eternal 
Light. 

The dawn's rays, awakening the depths of intuitive 
life and love, entered my being and blessed me. Father 
Eternal ! Thy universe is loaded and flooded with love, 
light, hope, and harmony. The dismal darkness of 
selfishness has departed. All is charity, faith, unfath- 
omable goodness, infinite perfection. Moments, days, 
years, ages ! They appear and disappear like the lights 
and shadows among flowers and trees. Persons, fam- 
ilies, races, empires ! They come and go like the rise 
and fall of waves upon the ocean's bosom. Heavenly 
Voice of Light ! O, let me ask — 

Intellect. — " How can I comprehend thee ?" 

Arabula. — "By studying my manifestations." 

Int. — " How am I to commence V 

Ara. — " With the history of mankind." 



52 THE ARABULA. 

Int. — " Does the history of mankind contain evidences 
of your presence ?" 

Ara. — " I am inseparable from human life ; for I am 
the Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into 
the world." 

Int. — " How can I comprehend this mystery ?" 

Ara. — " It is no mystery. My life is your life ; my 
light is your light ; my existence is your existence." 

Int. — " Do you mean that heaven lies about man in 
his infancy ; or, that we are nearer God when innocent 
and youthful?" 

Ara. — " Not that alone. I am born into man's intel- 
lectual consciousness only through the virgin mother — ■ 
the love of the soul for truth" 

Int. — " Is the soul's love for Truth an evidence of its 
virginity ?" 

Ara. — u When the soul loves Truth for selfish pur- 
poses, it is lustful and corrupted. A virgin soul is 
single-eyed for Truth, and in the love of such a soul the 
Saviour is born." 

Int.—" What Saviour?" 

Ara.—" The Light." 

Int. — " From what does the Light save man ?" 

Ara.- — " It judges his actions, approves his virtues, 
condemns his evils, rewards his obedience, punishes his 
transgressions, shines into his darkness, rebukes his ■ 
selfishness, overthrows his skepticism, lifts him above 
the animals, and makes him immortal." 

Int. — "What are the circumstances under which this 
virgin mother brings man's Saviour into the world ?" 

Ara. — " In the utmost simplicity — a manger of na- 
tural relation ships is the cradle, wherein the holy mother 



IMPERSONALITY OF ARABULA. 53 

reposes her babe, to the surprise of worldly shepherds, 
beneath the wandering stars of power, compelling the 
admiration of proud magi in Science, and rejoicing the 
hearts of watching angels." 

Int. — " Why do you speak after the manner of a re- 
ceived history of the birth of a personage ?" 

Ara. — " Because that history is the familiar drapery 
worn by an Eternal Verity." 

Int.— " What Eternal Verity ?" 

Ara.— " This ! That that Light, i which is the light 
of the world,' the living Emmanuel in the minds and 
hearts of men, is born of a virgin, is cradled in sim- 
plicity, preaches to the world, works wonders among 
the selfish, is too certainly crucified, dies into tem- 
porary darkness, is most loved by women, is guarded 
by angels, is resurrected, is revealed in greater glory on 
the mountain of experience, and in clouds of light 
returns to continue the work of salvation among 
men." 

Int. — "Is Christ the name of an historical person- 
age?" 

Ara. — " Christ is an ancient title for the present 
word, ' Arabula' — an idea, the mystery of Judean re- 
ligionists, the sacred Shekinah of 4he Oriental secret 
sects, the holy name for the Pure Presence, the Word, 
the Logos, the Symbol, the Holy Ghost, the Light of 
the World." 

Int. — " What is meant by the other title, Jesus ? " 
- Ara. — " Jesus is the name of a personage, in whose 
half-mythical history is mixed the mysteries of the secret 
Christ. The error of sacred history, is this mixture of 
personalities and events with ideas and principles." 



54: THE ARABULA. 

Int. — " Did not Jesus manifest all that is attributed 
to Christ ?" 

Ara. — " It is impossible for any one person to display 
the full glory of Eternal Light, but every one according 
to his love and capacity for Truth." 

Int. — " Then all men, of all countries, and in all con- 
ditions, may manifest more or less of Christ, if they 
will?" 

Ara. — a It is Life, and is seen in all life ; it is Love, 
and is manifested in all love ; it is Truth, and is present 
in all truth ; it is Light, and is visible in all wisdom ; 
it is God, and is embodied in whatsoever is good, 
beautiful, and everlasting." 

Int. — " Is this feeling, this holy yearning of the spirit 
for the Light, common to all men ?" 

Ara. — " There is a feeling, there always was a feeling, 
that the Infinite had its place in the soul ; that God, 
however much He may have been elsewhere, was most 
truly in the breast of His child ; that however magnifi- 
cent His temples of stone and gold might be, the temple 
He best loved to be worshiped in was the heart. There 
was, and is, a vague, dim belief that the human somewhere 
melted into the Divine, and that the Divine somewhere 
melted into the human. The inward being of man was 
always reaching out after God, and always returned 
from its reaching to find out that no reaching out was 
necessary, that God was nestling close to the heart. In 
all times, under all skies, men have had fleeting intima- 
tions of the presence of Deity, sitting vailed, shadowy, 
shrouded in the dark corners of their souls. One side 
of their being touched the Infinite — was the Infinite. 
Conscience was the eye, the voice of God." 



IMPERSONALITY OF ARABULA. 55 

Int. " In studying history, is it best to look at the 
items and the specialties in the biographies of dis- 
tinguished personages, or at the quality and amount 
of Life and Light (love and wisdom) they mani- 
fested ?" 

Ara. — u Great souls require no history. It is of 
no consequence where they were born, where they 
lived, what dress they wore, what fortune they met. 
Of some of them it may be said that they had no history 
whatever ; hardly a cord of trustworthy tradition holds 
them to the earth. We have them nevertheless ; they 
lived, they are ours, they are we; — the scantiness of 
their clothing permits us to see the majestic grace of 
their walk. The muse of history never introduced any- 
body to a Son of God."* 

Int. — " The Eternal Light, as I now understand it, 
lifts a person out of and above self. And furthermore, 
I understand that conscious individuality is based in 
selfishness, which is incompatible with the true birth 
and growth of Arabula in the soul ?" 

Ara. — " The Spirit (Christ) must be born a living 
Emmanuel ; man must know, by the heart's interior 
witness, of the Divine in his own nature. The Christ is 
revealed in the human through these three elements, 
these three principles, viz. : (1) the vital connection of 
man with the Eternal through the affections of his 
heart and the laws of his conscience ; (2) the vital con- 
nection of man with man by force of a common origin, 
a common nature, a common discipline, and a common 



* See Sermon on " The Birth of Christ," by Rev. 0. B. Frothingham, 
1861. 



56 THE ARABULA. 

destiny ; (3) the vital connection of man with himself 
by virtue of that sacred individuality which invests his 
personal character with supreme and inviolable worth, 
and makes his personal dignity and development the 
end of all his experience." 



FKQM HEAVEN TO HADES. 57 



CHAPTEE XVII. 

FROM HEAVEN" TO HADES. 

"While in the superior condition I had no difficulty in 
comprehending the underlying principles of ancient 
mysteries and modern myths in religion. Immersed in 
the waters of everlasting truth, I did not marvel at the 
emblematic ordinance called " baptism. 1 ' Neither did 
I marvel because the Arabula had said, and was always 
saying, to man's materialistic intellect : " You must be 
born again." Indeed, intuitively realizing with my 
impersonal consciousness, as I reverently did, the 
existence of the grand cardinal ideas and the inherent 
omniscience of the unchangeable principles of infinity, I 
should have marveled if the Light had not said to human 
ignorance and selfishness, "Ye must be born again." The 
universal allegorization of physical events, and changes 
in the sun, moon, stars, and other heavenly signs — the 
early custom of clothing, with oriental material splen- 
dors, the un definable religious mysteries of birth, life, 
death, immortality, rewards, punishments, God, Para- 
dise, pandemonium, and spiritual communications — all 
was made plain to my exalted understanding, even 
down to the very origin of all religion among the 
earliest of earth's inhabitants. 

O, the ineffable harmony of that Superior Condition ! 
in which the faculties of the human spirit immortal are 

3* 



58 THE ARABULA. 

awakened to their native conscious relationship with 
the heavenly love and omniscient goodness of the Infi- 
nite Whole ! 

The Eternal Arabnla — divine goddess of the spirit — 
lifts the thoughts to heaven's highest orbs. From her 
golden lips flow silvery sermons, like flowery balm from 
the life-trees of Elysian ; and in her voice is heard the 
murmuring, mellow, deathless music of immortal love. 
The illimitable expanse of sublime Summer Lands — 
the choral birds, the whispering breezes, the melodious 
streams, the gentle groves, and ever-fragrant flowers of 
the heavenly clime — with the poet's deathless strain, 
the tender reciprocations of angels, once earthly men 
and women, and the ravishing love-laughter of sweet, 
rosy-lipped, ever-beautiful childhood —all, all, and 
unutterably more, is brought into the spirit's essential 
consciousness by the presence and voice of Arabula. 
Yea, all is harmony, and enchantment, and sunlit love 
to him who, from the transfiguring mount of awakened 
Intuition, sees the fundamental, impersonal, infinite 
principles of the universe. The dark night of 
ignorance and the wily imps of selfishness are van- 
quished by the full-orbed heavenly daylight of un- 
dying Truth. O, that the spirit could at once enter 
unerringly upon its true association with God's fatherly, 
motherly life ! 

The next day I began to review the answers of 
Arabula. 

The perpetually appearing and disappearing of the 
divine light in persons and events, I could not compre- 
hend. I am not a principle, but a person ; how, then, 
am I to understand a principle ? I am m space, bounded 



FROM HEAVEN TO HADES. 59 

and educated by its limitations ; how then am I to com- 
prehend infinity, which is the annihilation of space? 

Dreaming does not satisfy my intellect. Yon tell 
me that a principle is eternally at work in the 
human heart, yearning to make itself manifest in the 
flesh, dividing itself up unceasingly without divisibility, 
touching and impressing and departing, like day into 
night ; and, knowing that I possess no faculties akin to 
such a principle, you tell me that I must perceive it, and 
preach it, and live it ! 

Let us not be deluded by chimeras... Matter I am ; 
therefore, matter I can comprehend. I can be extended, 
solidified, liquidated, divided ; therefore I cannot under- 
stand matter, which has extent, solidity, levitation, 
gravitation, and divisibility. But of an infinite being, 
what can I know? Shall I say, with Spinoza, that 
men are modes of the manifestation of the infinite 
intelligence ? Therefore, I must conclude that the 
absolutely indivisible essence is divided and organized 
into men, which is admitting that the mathematically 
impossible is possible. Will, design, power ! Are 
they qualities of the absolute essence? or, are they 
evolutions of the dynamics of that substance men call 
Matter ? 

No answer ! ~No answer ! Where is the Light now ? 
Darkness, thick blackness, covers the face of the deep. 
O, why do I not remember the lessons of Arabula? 
Yagueness profound presses the eyes of my intellectual 
powers. It is the old-time demon, an incubus — the 
return of selfishness— the enemy of the goddess of 
Light. 

O, the night-life of this under world ! Who can paint 



60 THE ARAJBULA. 

the scenes of this horrible hadean world? Faintly 
come weeping memories of joys once tasted in the 
beautiful garden. Baldur, the beloved son of Odin, 
never descended to this low estate. Here live Lold 
and Ahriman, the arch-enemies of Ormuzd, the prince 
of goodness, and the Light of the world. Here prowl 
and howl the selfish men whom the dread Annbis has 
consigned to judgment and the terrors of justice. The 
Thammuz of Chaldea sent all his evil genii to this 
nameless place of passion and despair. Here, in 
grandest misery, in a style of elegant wretchedness 
most magnificent, resides the opponent of Arabula — 
the devil of Selfishness, who fought and fled the presence 
of " the Light of the world." 

Hades is the habitation of the passions. The spirits 
here -are "spirits in prison." The heavenly Arabula, 
the Adonis of the inner life — " the Light which lighteth 
every man that cometh into the world " — descendeth 
here, clothed in the effulgent splendor of myriad-sided 
Truth, Love, and Wisdom, and, addressing the im- 
prisoned spirits, says, — " Repent ye ! repent ye ! Marvel 
not that I say unto you, ye must be born again" 



HOPEFUL SIGNS. 61 



CHAPTEK XYIII. 

HOPEFUL SIGNS. 

Intellect, without the lifting light and holy loving 
eyes of Intuition, is a poor player ; he " frets and struts 
his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more." 
He is limited in power ; proud as limited ; jealous as 
proud ; selfish as jealous ; and demoniac as selfish ; and 
thus, Othello-like, he atheistically says, first, " Put out 
the light, and then — put out the Light." 

The selfishness of the inferior conditioned Intellect 
is the original sin. Its possessor thinks only for him- 
self. To compass sea and land, to trample on the rights 
and liberties of others, to triumph over the downfall of 
compeers, to erect fortunes on the hopeless ruins of oppo- 
nents ; these are a few of the countless crimes of this 
part of man's nature. It eats and drinks and sleeps to 
gratify the selfish instinct. Marriage, habitation, pic- 
tures, furniture, children — all sought and secured for 
selfish gratification. Nothing is sacred — not husband, 
not wife, not children, not love (for of love it can know 
nothing), and not even human life is sacred ; for it will 
spoliate, burn, and assassinate, to accomplish its special 
selfish ends. It is cunning, tricky, stealthy, insinuating, 
treacherous. It is the enemy of the beautiful spirituality 
and unapproachable purity of Arabula. It ridicules 
the intangible; it condemns poetry as useless; it appre- 
ciates music as a voluptuous sensation ; it values mirth 



62 THE AEAETJLA. 

as the antidote for the still small voice of Arabula; it 
prizes the duration of bodily life beyond the wealth of 
Croesus ; it sees in sexuality no meaning but a means 
of varying the instinct of pleasure ; it lives in the present, 
with no hope, no heaven, no God, and is crazed at the 
thought of death. 

I have described no one civilized man's character ; 
only painted the selfishness of Intellect, when it is not 
" born again ;" when it is a proud, overbearing stranger 
to the superior condition ; when it persistently resists 
the influx of that holy Light, which floods with eternal 
beauty and harmony the infinite universe. 

In myself I found hopeful signs. Although I could 
still intellectualize, and pick flaws in the logic of Ara- 
bula, and philosophize disparagingly on the undefinable 
affirmations of Intuition ; yet, somewhat to my surprise, 
my negative theories and materialistic criticisms, after 
imparting a momentary feeling of triumph, because I 
had perplexed and silenced the inner angel, reacted 
upon my soul like the alarm-chill of a sudden cold. I 
no longer took pleasure in combating the angel of 
Light! "Why persecutest thou mef — sounded in the 
sanctuary of my spirit. 

Was not this a foregleam of the possible resurrection 
of my Intellect % I was subdued, thoughtful, prayerful, 
hopeful. 



GLIMMERINGS OF LIGHT IN MYSTERY. 63 



CHAPTEK XIX. 

GLIMMERINGS OF LIGHT IN MYSTERY. 

Mystery ! O, thou bountiful mother of blessings, 
evils, faiths, skepticisms, piety, cruelty, hope, wretched- 
ness, progress ! Mystery ! the vehicle of all ancient 
systems of religion ; the material clothing, the seamless 
garment, worn by the Angel of Immortality on her first 
visit to earth. Spurn mystery ; refuse to entertain its 
most extravagant tales ; shut from patient observation 
its philosophically impossible feats of miracles; repel 
its large-eyed and loquacious stories of the gods, of the 
phenomena in nature, of the marvels of the four seasons, 
of the meanings and movements of the celestial bodies, 
of the signs, and secrets, and solemn ceremonials, 
vestments, enchantments, imposing tableaux, pomp, 
anthems, mechanism, lighted candles, cymbals, ringing 
bells, incantations, prayers, pilgrimages — spurn these, 
repel these, turn away scornfully from these, proudly 
trample over these up to the summit of mount Science 
— and you forsake the mother of all religion, you leave 
to perish miserable the gorgeous goddess of unnumbered 
spiritual benefits, you turn, like an intellectual igno- 
ramus, like a pedantic inductionist of the Baconian 
school (which is perfect in its place), and, in that one 
act of treachery and stupidity, you shut out the Light 
of God, and take down the spiral stairway which leads 
through the thorny experimentally-paved avenues of 



64 THE ARABULA. 

knowledge to the royal road, the straight and beautiful 
way of eternal principles within and without yonr 
existence. 

Mystery ! Are you not a miracle ? If you are not, 
then there never was a miracle. Is it not marvelous 
that you should be so ignorant of the universe ? Here 
you are ! born but yesterday, on the high table-land of 
the infinite past, at whose base lie the skeletons _of 
countless hosts, a hecatomb of human ashes, once ani- 
mated, like your own chemical bodies, with feelings, 
instincts, passions, thought, activity, grief, pleasure — 
and yet, with all this opulent repository of history and 
learning at your very feet, you are ignorant of the 
latent meaning in religious mystery! 

It is to-day a mystery to me how, yesterday, I could 
so drop below the superior condition as to irreverently 
question the positive declarations of the world-enlight- 
ening Arabula. O, the blood-sweat agony — O, the 
darkness over the face of Nature — O, the fiendish power 
of the spirit of selfishness ! "Why did a little worldly 
care, some external anxiety in business, an act of 
injustice by a neighbor, so rapidly drive me out of the 
peaceful, musical, flowery garden of harmony ? 

Why did I not say yesterday, as my light-lifted soul 
now says, to the unspiritualizing propensity of grovel- 
ing, unredeemed Intellect — "Cursed art thou; upon 
thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the 
days of thy life." Is it not a religious mystery? And 
is it not a miracle that you, refined and noble-natured 
as you are, do not at once accept the Light and " be 
born again '?" Verily, it is more marvelous that you do 
not, than that you should. O, you do not want to 



GLIMMERINGS OF LIGHT IN MTSTEET. 65 

' 'change jour "base" of operations in religion! Yes, 
you self-aggrandizing and consistency-worshiping foe 
of progress! You are seen as you are! Ton have 
married a society-wife, and therefore cannot march in 
Truth's army. And, moreover, it is so agonizingly 
" hard " to be born again ; it is, likewise, " incon- 
venient ;" it is, also, exhaustingly " expensive ;" and, 
here's the rub, it is painful to your fashionably-religious 
''relatives;" for are you not bone of their bone and 
flesh of their flesh? 

O, ye typifiers of the mimicking quadrupeds of the 
tropical forests ! Do you not ape the monkeys of 
fashion ? Are you not living on the " lost sheep " side 
of eternal Light ? — That is sinless, the pure, the spotless, 
the unselfish ; it is good in the sight of God ; it bears 
our burdens ; it carries our infirmities ; it is the angel- 
presence in the devilhood of our unprogressive mental 
states ; it is the infinite inherent perfection, ever-preach- 
ing, "Be ye perfect;" by it we absolutely see that 
"there is no man good — no, not one;" it unceasingly 
says, " Come unto me, all ye that are heavy laden, and 
I will give you i^est;" it does not give us stones when 
we ask for bread, but, opening its life-larder, says, 
" Here is my body, and here is my blood — take, eat ;" 
this is the dispensation of " holy spirit ;" it descendeth 
from the heaven of " many mansions ;" it taketh mani- 
fold forms, variable historical incarnations, but is im- 
mutably one and the sa^ie Light ; it bringeth a har- 
monious gospel through antagonistic systems of re- 
ligion ; and, as the Light has before written, it is the 
same to the Indian as to the Judean ; it is not given to 
one and withheld from another; but it descends upon 



6G THE AEABULA. 

the devil as well as upon the angel in us, and upon 
every intermediate condition of life ; it moveth upon 
dark waters, and upon bright and shining oceans; 
it rideth upon the storm and flieth upon the whirlwind, 
and it broodeth over the placid lake of the soul ; it is 
not here nor there, but everywhere ; it melteth the 
stony heart that it may become a heart of flesh ; and 
poureth oil and wine into the wound of the earthly 
traveler ; it is the good Samaritan, who will pay two 
pence for the healing of his brother's sores, and it will 
come again to see if more can be done for the sufferers 
of earth ; it is the star of the East guiding wise men to 
the young child, Arabula, who will hold out His hands 
to them, laden with the spiritual blessings the Light 
alone can bestow. This is the Holy Spirit of truth that 
shall guide you into all happiness. This is the Com- 
forter ; this is the '■ baptism of fire " with which every 
one shall be baptized. s 



THE PAINS OF MEMORY. 67 



CHAPTEE XX. 

THE TAINS OF MEMORY. 

Intellect is an imbecile without Memory, as it is an 
evil genius without the uplifting spirit of Arabula. 

Too well do I recall the warnings — the sympathetic 
shadow- winged prophecies — of the stern saint of Light. 
It told me day by day to wash away my sins of selfish- 
ness. Day by day it imprinted the Cain -mark of shame 
upon my brow, because I wanted to substitute for a 
cross-bearing life of public usefulness a flower-crowned 
life of private idleness and luxury. 

Like you, my reader, I wanted a thousand things I 
did not need; in truth, my wants, besides being expen- 
sive and unnecessary, were taxing the time, talents, 
labor, and patience of others. I wanted to have a ser- 
vant at my call, who would brush my clothes, black my 
boots, comb my hair, spread the table with rich viands, 
and fan away the flies while I ate. I wanted a living 
without working for it ! I wanted to be rich, and did 
not care if it was made by profits sheared, by the legiti- 
mate scissors of trade, from commodities sold as neces- 
sities to the poor. Of society I wanted nothing but 
what was conducive to personal gratification. Do you 
see yourself in this mirror ? 

Do not say that I must first merit the Good, the 
Fine, and the Beautiful ; no, no, I am impatient for 
bappiness ; therefore, first supply my greedy wants, and 



68 THE ARABTJLA. 

if " I like it I'll take some more." O, bright Angel 
of the Spirit ! how selfishly did I " want " to live, while 
thou wert suffering "on the cross." Forgive ! forgive ! 
Kavines, rocks, forests, birds, with setting suns and 
summer skies, and the 

"Beautiful flowers round Wisdom's secret well," 

with the affections of earth and the final beatitudes of 
heaven — all, I was willing, yea, anxious to appropriate, 
without so much as once thinking that " I ought to be 
thankful " for the possession of the senses by which the 
appropriation was possible. 

Like my penitent reader, who, by this time, should 
be serenely living in good works, I recall all selfish 
impulses with miserable distinctness.*' To-day I sit 
meditatively " dreaming over the past," and all too 
easily remember the "wholesome smart" and the 
"remorseful stings" of hours wasted in life's spring- 
time, vainly looking for happiness in self-will, self- 
seeking, self-gratification. But, glory be to God ! the 
night is past, the storm clouds dispersed, a boundless 
blue sky enfolds the world, the feet of angels press 
once more the celestial pathway, my chastened spirit is 
obedient to its laws, and my affections, with my re- 
deemed Intellect, are hospitably open to the influx of 
the Infinite. 



HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 69 



CHAPTEK XXI. 

HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 

The constant, and yet inconstant, glimmerings of the 
divine Light, in the materialism of religious history, can 
be seen by those only who "have eyes to see." Yoltaire, 
who was steady in his devotion to the Light (?) of the 
Intellect, set forth, in his Philosophical Dictionary, the 
obvious beginnings of the Christian religion, as fol- 
lows : — 

In the years which immediately followed Jesus Christ, 
who was at once God and man, there existed among the 
Hebrews nine religious schools or societies, — Pharisees, 
Sadducees, Essenians, Judaites, Therapeutse, Recabites, 
Herodiaus, the disciples of John, and the disciples of 
Jesus, named the " brethren," — the " Galileans," — the 
" believers," who did not assume the name of Christians 
till about the sixtieth year of our era, at Antioch; 
being directed to its adoption by God himself, in ways 
unknown to men. 

The Pharisees believed in the metempsychosis. The 
Sadducees denied the immortality of the soul, and the 
existence of spirits, yet believed in the Pentateuch. 

Pliny, the naturalist (relying, evidently, on the 
authority of Flavius Josephus),' calls the Essenians 
"gens SBterna in qua nemo nascitur ;" — "a perpetual 
family, in which no one is ever born ;" becanse the 
Essenians very rarely married. The description has 



70 THE AHABTTLA. 

been since applied to our monks, and to the " Shakers " 
of our day. 

It is difficult to decide whether the Essenians or the 
Judaites are spoken of by Joseph us in the following 
passage : — " They despise the evils of the world ; their 
constancy enables them to triumph over torments; in 
an honorable cause they prefer death to life. They 
have undergone fire and sword, and submitted to having 
their very bones crushed, rather than utter a syllable 
against their legislator, or eat forbidden food." 

It would seem, from the words of Joseph us, that the 
above portrait applies to the Judaites, and not to the 
Essenians. " Judas was the author of a new sect, com- 
pletely different from the other three," that is, the Sad- 
ducees, the Pharisees, and the Essenians. u They 
are," he goes on to say, "Jews by nation, they live 
in harmony with each other, and consider pleasure 
to be a vice." The natural meaning of this language 
would induce us to think that he is speaking of the 
Judaites. 

However that may be, these Judaites were known 
before the disciples of Christ began to possess conside- 
ration and consequence in the world. Some weak 
people have supposed them to be heretics, who adored 
Judas Iscariot. 

The Therapeutse were a society different from the 
Essenians and the Judaites. They resembled the Gym- 
nosophists and Brahmins of India. " They possess," 
says Philo, " a principle of divine love, which excites in 
them an enthusiasm like that of th'e Bacchantes and 
the Corybantes, and which forms them to that state of 
contemplation to which they aspire. This sect origina- 



HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 71 

ted in Alexandria, which was entirely filled with Jews, 
and prevailed greatly throughout all Egypt." 

The Recabites still continued as a sect. They vowed 
never to drink wine ; and it is, possibly, from their 
example, that Mahomet forbade that liquor to his fol- 
lowers. 

The Herodians regarded Herod, the first of that 
name, as a Messiah, a messenger from God, who had 
rebuilt the temple. It is clear that the Jews at Rome 
celebrated a festival in honor of him, in the reign 
of Nero, as appears from the lines of Persins — " Hero- 
dis venere dies," &c. (Sat. v. 180.) 

"King Herod's feast, when each Judean vile 
Trims up his lamp with tallow or with oil." 

The disciples of John the Baptist had spread them- 
selves a little in Egypt, but principally in Syria, 
Arabia, and towards the Persian Gulf. They are 
recognized, at the present day, under the name of the 
Christians of St. John. There were some also in Asia 
Minor. It is mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles 
(chap, xix.) that Paul met with many of them at 
Ephesus. " Have you received," he asked them, " the 
holy spirit?" They answered him, "We have not 
heard even that there is a holy spirit." — " What baptism, 
then," says he, " have you received ?" They answered 
him, " The baptism of John." 

In the mean time; the true Christians, as is well 
known, were laying the foundation of the only true 
religion. 

He who contributed most to strengthen this rising 
society was Paul, who had himself persecuted it with 



72 THE AEABULA. 

the greatest violence. He was born at Tarsus in 
Cilicia,* and was educated under one of the most cele- 
brated professors among the Pharisees, Gamaliel, a dis- 
ciple of Hillel. The Jews pretend that he quarreled 
with Gamaliel, who refused to let him have his daugh- 
ter in marriage. Some traces of this anecdote are to be 
found in the sequel to the Acts of St. Thecla. These 
Acts relate that he had a large forehead, a bald head, 
united eyebrows, an aquiline nose, a short and clumsy 
figure, and crooked legs. Lucian, in his dialogue 
" Philopatres," seems to give a very similar portrait 
of him. It has been doubted whether he was a Roman 
citizen, for at that time the title was not given to any 
Jew ; they had been expelled from "Rome by Tiberius ; 
and Tarsus did not become a Roman colony till nearly 
a hundred years afterwards, under Caracalla ; as Cella- 
rius remarks in his Geography (book iii.), and Grotius 
in his Commentary on the Acts, to whom alone we 
need refer. * * * All the first believers 
were obscure persons. They all labored with their 
hands. The apostle St. Paul himself acknowledges 
that he gained his livelihood by making tents. St. 
Peter raised from the dead Dorcas, a seamstress, who 
made clothes for the "brethren." The assembly of 
believers met at Joppa, at the house of a tanner called 
Simon, as appears from the ninth chapter of the Acts of 
the Apostles. 

The believers spread themselves secretly in Greece ; 
and some of them went from Greece to Rome, among 
the Jews, who were permitted by the Romans to have a 

* St. Jerome says that he was from Giscala in Galilee. 




HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 73 

synagogue. They did not, at first, separate themselves 
from the Jews. They practiced circumcision ; and, as 
we have elsewhere remarked, the first fifteen obscure 
bishops of Jerusalem were all circumcised, or at least 
were all of the Jewish nation. 

When the apostle Paul took with him Timothy, who 
was the son of a heathen father, he circumcised him 
himself, in the small city of Lystra. But Titus, his 
other disciple, could not be induced to submit to cir- 
cumcision. The brethren, or the disciples of Jesus, 
continued united with the Jews until the time when St. 
Paul experienced a persecution at Jerusalem on account 
of his having introduced strangers into the temple. 
He was accused by the Jews of endeavoring to destroy 
the law of Moses by that of Jesus Christ. It was with 
a view to his clearing himself from this accusation that 
the apostle St. James proposed to the apostle Paul that 
he should shave his head, and go and purify himself in 
the temple, with four Jews, who had made a vow of 
being shaved. " Take them with you," says James to 
him (chap. xxi. Acts of the Apostles), " purify yourself 
with them, and let the whole world know that what has 
been reported concerning you is false, and that you con- 
tinue to obey the law of Moses." Thus, then, Paul, 
who had been at first the most summary persecutor of 
the holy society established by Jesus, — Paul, who after- 
wards endeavored to govern that rising society, — Paul 
the Christian, Judaizes, " that the world may know 
that he is calumniated when he is charged with no 
longer following the law of Moses." 

St. Paul was equally charged with impiety and 
heresy, and the prosecution against him lasted a long 



74 THE AH ABU LA. 

time ; but it is perfectly clear, from the nature of the 
charges, that he had traveled to Jerusalem in order to 
fulfil the rites of Judaism. 

He addressed to Faustus these words (Acts xxv.) : "I 
have neither offended against the Jewish- law, nor against 
the temple." 

The apostles announced Jesus Christ as a just man 
wickedly persecuted, a prophet of God, a son of God, 
sent to the Jews for the reformation of manners. 

" Circumcision," says the apostle Paul, " is good, if 
you observe the law ; but if you violate the law, your 
circumcision becomes uncircumcision. If an uncircn in- 
cised person keep the law, he will be as if circumcised. 
The true Jew is one that is so inwardly." 

When this apostle speaks of Jesus Christ in his 
epistles, he does not reveal the ineffable mystery of his 
consubstantiality with God. "We are delivered by 
him," says he (Romans, chap, v.), " from the wrath of 
God. The gift of God hath been shed upon us by the 
grace bestowed on one man, who is Jesus Christ. 
* * * Death reigned through the sin 

of one man ; the just shall reign in life by one man, who 
is Jesus Christ." 

And, in the eighth chapter — " "We are heirs of God, 
and joint-heirs of Christ ;" and in the sixteenth chap- 
ter — " To God, who is the only wise, be honor and 
glory, through Jesus Christ. * 

You are Jesus Christ's, and Jesus Christ is God's " (1 Cor. 
chap. iii.). 

And in 1 Cor. xv. 27 — " Every thing is made subject 
to him, undoubtedly excepting God, who made all 
things subject to him." 



HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 75 

Some difficulty has been found in explaining the fol- 
lowing part of the epistle of the Philippians : — " Do 
nothing through vainglory. Let each humbly think 
others better than himself. Be of the same mind with 
Jesus Christ, w7w, heing in the likeness of God, assumed 
not to equal himsdf to God"* This passage appears 
exceedingly well investigated and elucidated in a letter, 
still extant, of the churches of Yienna and Lyons, writ- 
ten in the year 117, and which is a valuable monument 
of antiquity. In this letter the modesty of some 
believers is praised. " They did not wish," says the 
letter, " to assume the lofty title of martyrs, in conse- 
quence of certain tribulations; after the example of 
Jesus Christ, who, being in the likeness of God, did not 
assume the quality of being equal to God." Origen, 
also, in his commentary on John, says : " The greatness 
of Jesus shines out more splendidly, in consequence of 
his self-humiliation, than if he had assumed equality 
with God." In fact, the opposite interpretation would 
be a solecism. What sense would there be in this exhor- 
tation : " Think others superior to yourselves ; imitate 
Jesus, who did not think it an assumption to be equal 
to God ?" It would be an obvious contradiction ; 
it would be putting an example of full pretension for an 
example of modesty ; it would be an offense against 
logic. 

Thus did the wisdom of the apostles establish the 

* Our English version gives the foregoing passage — " Who being in 
the form of G-od, thought it no robbery to be equal with God." — See 
Epistle to Philippians. c. ii. to 6th verse — a directly contrary translation. 
Voltaire, the context, the Fathers, and the ancient letter, versus the 
English translation. 



VO THE AEABULA. 

rising church. That wisdom did not change its charac- 
ter in consequence of the dispute which took place 
between the apostles Peter, James, and John, on one 
side, and Paul on the other. This contest occurred at. 
Antioch. The apostle Peter, formerly Cephas, or Simon 
Barjonas, ate with the converted Gentiles, and among 
them did not observe the ceremonies of the law, and the 
distinction of meats. He and Barnabas, and the other 
disciples, ate indifferently of pork, of animals which 
had been strangled, or which had cloven feet, or which 
did not chew the cud; but many Jewish Christians 
having arrived, St. Peter joined with them in absti- 
nence from forbidden meats, and in the ceremonies of 
the Mosaic law. 

This conduct appeared very prudent : he wished to 
avoid giving offense to the Jewish Christians, his com- 
panions ; but St. Paul attacked him on the subject 
with considerable severity. " I withstood him," says 
he, " to his face, because he was blamable." (Gal. 
chap, ii.) 

This quarrel appears the most extraordinary on the 
part of St. Paul. Having been at first a persecutor, he 
might have been expected to have acted with modera- 
tion ; especially as he had himself gone to Jerusalem to 
sacrifice in the temple, had circumcised his disciple 
Timothy, and strictly complied with the Jewish rites, 
for which very compliance he now reproached Cephas. 
St. Jerome imagines that this quarrel between Paul 
and Cephas was a pretended one. He says, in Ids first 
homily (vol. iii.), that they acted like two advocates 
who work themselves up to an appearance of great zeal 
and exasperation against each other, to gain credit 



HISTORY CF CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 77 

with their respective clients. He says that Peter 
(Cephas) being appointed to preach to the Jews, and 
Panl to the Gentiles, they assumed the appearance of 
qnarreling, Paul to gain the Gentiles, and Peter to 
gain the Jews. But St. Augustin is by no means of 
the same opinion. " I grieve," says he, in his epistle 
to Jerome, " that so great a man should be the patron 
of a lie " (patroiiiim mendacii). 

This dispute between St. Jerome and St. Augustin 
ought not to diminish our veneration for them, and 
still less for St. Paul and St. Peter. 
■ As to what remains, if Peter was destined for the 
Jews, who were after their conversion likely to Judaize, 
and Paul for strangers, it appears probable that Peter 
never went to Kome. The Acts of the Apostles make 
no mention of Peter's journey to Italy. 

However that may be, it was about the sixtieth year 
of our era that Christians began to separate from the 
Jewish communion ; and it was this which drew upon 
them so many quarrels and persecutions from the 
various synagogues of Rome, Greece, Egypt, and Asia. 
They were accused of impiety and atheism by their 
Jewish brethren, who excommunicated them in their 
synagogues three times every Sabbath day. But in 
the midst of their persecutions God always supported 
them. 

By degrees, many churches were formed, and the 
separation between Jews and Christians was complete 
before the close of the first century. This separation 
was unknown by the Roman government. Neither 
the senate nor the emperors of Rome interested them 
selves in those quarrels of a small flock of mankind, 



78 THE AEABULA. 

which God had hitherto guided in obscurity, and which 
he exalted by insensible gradations. 

Christianity became established in Greece and at 
Alexandria. The Christians had there to contend with 
a new set of Jews, who, in consequence of intercourse 
with the Greeks, were become philosophers. This was 
the sect of gnosis, or Gnostics. Among them were some 
of the new converts to Christianity. All these sects, at 
that time, enjoyed complete liberty to dogmatize, dis- 
course, and write, whenever the Jewish courtiers, 
settled at Rome and Alexandria, did not bring any 
charge against them before the magistrates. But f 
under Domitian, Christianity began to give some 
umbrage to the government. 

The zeal of some Christians, which was not accord 
ing to knowledge, did not prevent the church from 
making that progress which God destined from the 
beginning. The Christians, at first, celebrated their 
mysteries in sequestered houses, and in caves, and 
during night. Hence, according to Minutius Felix, 
the title given them of lucifugaces. Philo calls them 
gesseens. The names most frequently applied to them 
by the heathens, during the first four centuries, were 
"Galileans" and " Nazarenes ;" but that of "Chris- 
tians " has prevailed above all the others. 

Neither the hierarchy, nor the services of the church, 
were established all at once ; the apostolic times were 
different from those which followed. 

The mass now celebrated at matins, was the suppen 
performed in the evening : these usages changed in 
proportion as the church strengthened. A more 
numerous society required more regulations, and the 



HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 79 

prudence of the pastors accommodated itself to times 
arid places. 

St. Jerome and Eusebius relate, that when the 
churches received a regular form, five different orders 
might be soon perceived to exist in them — superintend- 
ents, episcojpoi / whence originate the bishops — elders of 
the society, presbyteroi, priests — diaconoi, servants or 
'deacons— pistol, believers, the initiated ; that is, the 
baptized, who participated in the suppers of the agapsB, 
or love-feasts — the catechumens, who were awaiting 
baptism — and the enerqumens, who awaited their being 
exorcised of demons. In these five orders no one had 
garments different from the others, no one was bound 
to celibacy : witness Tertullian's book, dedicated to his 
wife, and witness also the example of the apostles. No 
paintings or sculptures were to be found in their assem- 
blies, during the first two centuries ; no altars ; and, 
most certainly, no tapers, incense, and lustral water. 
The Christians carefully concealed their books from the 
Gentiles : they intrusted them only to the initiated. 
Even the catechumens were not permitted to recite the 
Lord's Prayer. 



80 THE ARAJBTTLA. 



CHAPTER XXII. 

RELIGIOUS SIGNS AND MYSTERIES. 

It is the office of enlightened reason to investigate 
all mysteries, to search their meanings, to strip off all 
the tales and trappings of superstition ; and, finally, to 
discern the under- current of Truth, the spirit of Light 
and Deity, in the contradictory and apparently irrecon- 
cilable events and personages of history. There is in 
the world (says a writer) a distinct class of books, writ- 
ten " within and without," Ezek. ii. 10 ; or, " within 
and on the back side," Rev. v. 1 ; that is, they are sym- 
bolic books, having a double sense ; and they have pro- 
ceeded from the members of esoteric societies in differ- 
ent ages of the world, who have written under the re- 
straint of an oath of secrecy. What is the true key to 
these books ? It is a state of the soul, and is not a 
transferable possession. " In thy light shall we see 
light," Psalm xxxvi. 9. 

"We shall never make any real progress in under- 
standing the Scriptures until we advance so far as to 
recognize princijrtes in the persons represented. The 
seeming historical persons must be regarded as shadows 
passing before us, to draw our attention to the spiritual 
truths or principles by which they were, or rather, by 
which they are perpetually cast : for if there is any 
thing in the Scriptures which is not true to us, and to 
our time, it can have no importance to us. The value 



RELIGIOUS SIGNS AND MYSTERIES. 81 

of the Scriptures lies in their application to life ; but no 
application is possible, except a perverted one, when 
the truth is not recognized ; and to recognize the truth, 
the Scriptures require to be interpreted ; yet not as his- 
tory, but as parables.* 

M. Renan, with philosophic calmness, and a truly 
majestic and pure style of criticism, conducts his readers 
►to the same conclusion. He is not lost in the limita 5 
tions and killing associations of the letter, but. perceiv- 
ing the interior light sought to be conveyed by the 
gospels, does much to rescue the Testaments from the 
utter oblivion to which, long since, the fact-loving 
intellect had consigned them. 

Sir Philip Sidney said there were no writings in the 
world so well calculated to make a man wise as those 
of Plato : and yet this is not because Plato has any- 
where defined God, or wisdom, or virtue, or justice, or 
love, or beauty, or goodness, or truth; for this was not 
the purpose of his writings ; but he has nevertheless 
written so about all these things, that an attentive stu- 
dent may find something to satisfy his reasonable long 
ings, even though they should reach out after immor- 
tality ; while the unapt or careless reader may wonder 
why so wise a man as Plato has advocated a system in 
the Republic, which, taken literally, would destroy any 
society in the world. We ought to see that for this 
very reason the Republic is a piece of ancient esoteric 
writing, needing interpretation. If we call the intel- 
lectual qualities masculine, and the affectional feminine, 
we may finally discover in what sense they may live in 



* This is the opinion of M. Hitchcock, a careful thinker and writer. 
4* 



82 THE ARABULA. 

a blessed commwvdy^ in which, in Scripture language, 
the lion and the lamb shall lie down together.* 

Socrates called hie art of teaching the art of the mid- 
wife ; because, according to his philosophy, no man 
could learn any thing who had not a seed of the 
knowledge in himself: and the art of Socrates con- 
sisted in bringing the seed into life and action. A 
soul, therefore, acquiring great troths, was compared to 
a woman in labor ; and Socrates compared himself to 
his mother, who. he tells us. was a midwife. 

Mysteries in religion will continue until man's Intel- 
Jeer ig lifted and sanctified, so to speak, by the unselfish 
impersonal Light of God. Goethe remark- : "There is 
something magical at all times in perspectives. Were 
we not accustomed from youth to look through them, 
we should shudder and tremble every time we put 
them to our eyes. It is we who are looking, and it is 
not we : a being it is whose organs are raised to a 
higher pitch, whose limitations are done away, who has 
become entitled to stretch forth into the infinite/* 
Xow it is every man's privilege to look in ,; perspec- 
tives " in the fields of spirituality. But whether he see 
an infinity of absurdity, or an infinity of truth, will 
ever be determined by the amount of intuition he lets 
into his eyes. 

The Arabuhi began at the beginning of human his- 
tory to incarnate itself, and to utter itself in all human 
relations, feelings, and interests. It comes forth in the 
incarnations of Brahrn, in Kreeshna, Budha, in Osiris, 

* For further thoughts on this subject, see a chapter on " Cliriat the 
Spirit," by the author referred to. 



RELIGIOUS SIGNS AND MYSTERIES. 83 

in Ormuzd, in Adonis, in Apollo, in Bacchus, in Jupiter, 
in Pythagoras, in Socrates, in Plato, in Confucius, in 
Jesus. Says an author: "The most important of these 
mysteries trere those of Mithras, celebrated in Persia ; 
of Osiris and Isis, celebrated in Egypt ; of Eleusis. in- 
stituted in Greece ; and the Scandinavian and Druidical 
rites, which were confined to the Gothic and Celtic 
tribes. In all these various mysteries we find a singular 
unity of design, clearly indicating a common origin, 
and a purity of doctrine as evidently proving that this 
common origin was not to be sought for in the popular 
theology of the Pagan world. The ceremonies of ini- 
tiation were all funereal in their character. They cele- 
brated the death and the resurrection of some cherished 
being, either the object of esteem as a hero, or of devo- 
tion as a god. Subordination of degrees was instituted, 
and the candidate was subjected to probations varying 
in their character and severity ; the rites were practiced 
in the darkness of night, and often amid the gloom of 
impenetrable forests, or subterranean caverns ; and the 
full fruition of knowledge, for which so much labor was 
endured, and so much danger incurred, was not attained 
until the aspirant, well tried and thoroughly purified, 
had reached the place of wisdom and of light." 

The secret doctrines of the Egyptian rites (according 
to the Lexicon) related to the gods, the creation and gov- 
ernment of the world, and the nature and condition of 
the human soul. They called the perfectly-initiated can- 
didate Al-om-jah, from the name of the Deity. Secrecy 
was principally inculcated, and all their lessons were 
taught by symbols. Many of these have been preserved. 
With them, a point within a circle was the symbol of the 



84 THE AEABULA. 

Deity surrounded by eternity ; the globe was a symbol 
of the supreme and eternal God ; a serpent with a tail 
in his month was emblematic of eternity ; a child sitting 
on the lotos was a symbol of the sun ; a palm-tree, of 
victory ; a staff, of authority ; an ant, of knowledge ; a 
goat, of fecundity ; a wolf, of aversion ; the right hand, 
with the fingers open, of plenty; and the left hand 
closed, of protection. 

In Dr. Oliver's account of the Mysteries of Bacchus, 
we read : " The first actual ceremony among the 
Greeks was to purify the aspirant with water, and to 
crown him with myrtle, because the myrtle-tree was 
sacred to Proserpine ; after which he was free from 
arrest during the celebrations. He was then introduced 
into a small cave or vestibule, to be invested with the 
sacred habiliments ; after which his conductor delivered 
him over to the mystagogue, who then commenced the 
initiation with the prescribed formula, Ezaz, E/.aq, ears 
j3e(3rjXoi, Depart hence, all ye jwofane / and the guide 
addressed the aspirant by exhorting him to call forth 
all his courage and fortitude, as the process on which 
he was now about to enter was of the most appalling 
nature. And being led forward through a series of 
dark passages and dismal caverns, to represent the 
erratic state of the Ark while floating on the troubled 
surface of the diluvian waters, the machinery opens 
upon him. He first hears the distant thunder pealing 
through the vault of heaven, accompanied by the howl- 
ing of dogs and wild beasts. * * * * These 
terrific noises rapidly approach, and the din becomes 
tremendous, reverberated, as it doubtless was, in endless 
repetitions, from the echoing vaults and lofty caverns 



RELIGIOUS SIGNS AND MYSTEEIES. 85 

within whose inextricable mazes he was now immured. 
Flashes of vivid light now broke in upon him, and ren- 
dered the prevailing darkness more visible ; and by the 
momentary illumination he beheld the appearances by 
which he was surrounded. Monstrous shapes and 
apparitions, demoniacal figures, grinning defiance at 
the intruder; mystical visions and flitting shadows, 
unreal phantoms of a dog-like form, overwhelm him 
with terror. In this state of horrible apprehension 
and darkness he was kept three days and nights." 

From the Lexicon may be gleaned other details, 
showing the strugglings of the Divine Light in man's 
nature for utterance ; and how, when its pure prompt- 
ings are not comprehended by minds in darkness, it 
ultimates in painful superstitions and mysterious cere- 
monies. u The Grecian rites were only a modification 
of the mysteries of Bacchus or Dionysus, and were thus 
called, because it was said that Orpheus first introduced 
the worship of Bacchus into Greece from Egypt. They 
differed, however, from the other pagan rites in not 
being confined to the priesthood, but in being practiced 
by a fraternity who did not possess the sacerdotal func- 
tions. The initiated commemorated in their ceremonies, 
which were performed at night, the murder of Bacchus 
by the Titans, and his final restoration to the supreme 
government of the universe, under the name of Phanes." 
-x- * * * u j n ^ e day, the initiates were crowned 
with fennel and poplar, and carried serpents in their 
hands, or twined them around their heads, crying with 
a loud voice, ends, sahos, and danced to the sound of 
the mystic words, hyes, attes, attes, liyes. At night the 
mystes were bathed in the lustral water, and having 



86 THE ARABUXA. 

been rubbed over with clay and bran, lie was clothed 
in the skin of a fawn, and, having risen from the bath, 
he exclaimed, ' I have departed from evil and have 
found the good.'' " 

As to the use of the term Jehovah, the same authority 
remarks, that " an allusion to the unutterable name of 
God is to be found in the doctrines and ceremonies of 
other nations, as well as the Jews. It is said to have 
been used as the pass-word in the Egyptian mysteries. 
In the rites of Hindostan it was bestowed upon the* 
aspirant, under the triliteral form AUM, at the com- 
pletion of his initiation, and then only by whispering 
it in his ear. The Cabalists reckoned seventy-two 
names of God, the knowledge of which imparted to the 
possessor magical powers. The Druids invoked the 
omnipotent and all-preserving power, under the symbol 
I. O. W. 

" In fact, the name of God must be taken as sym- 
bolical of truth; and then, the search for it will be 
nothing else but the search after truth. The subordi- 
nate names are the subordinate modifications of truth, 
but the ineffable tetragrammaton will be the sublimity 
and perfection of Divine Truth. 

" The doctrines of the Druids were the same as those 
entertained by Pythagoras. They taught the existence 
of one Supreme Being ; a future state of rewards and 
punishments ; the immortality of the soul, and a metemp- 
sychosis; and the object of their mystic rites was to 
communicate the doctrines in symbolic language." 




LIGHT IN THE WINDOW. 87 



CHAPTEE XXIII. 

LIGHT IN THE WINDOW. 

Man's intellectual powers, led by the hand of Ara- 
bula, naturally solve the mysteries of religion. The 
mystery is revived, however, the moment the individual's 
higher consciousness is suspended, or descends to the 
hades of selfishness, to live on a plane with the intel- 
lect's atheism and utter disbelief in things spiritual. 

But however dark and thorny man's mind may be at 
times, there is ever a Light burning in the window of 
his inner existence, saying, " I am the way, the truth, 
and the life ; follow me !" By giving a tongue to this 
inherent celestial guest, and then listening with heart 
and intellect to what it says, the message would sub- 
stantially be, " Hearken to me, 1 speak not from myself; 
I speak only the words of my Father. If you love me, 
you will keep my commandments, and then you shall 
know whether what I teach be of the intellect, or of 
the Father that is in me. Then you shall know that I 
am in the Father, and the Father in me. If ye continue 
in my word (the light), then are ye my disciples in- 
deed ; and ye shall know the Truth, and the Truth 
shall make you free. To this end came I into the 
world (into your externals), that I should bear witness 
unto the Truth. Every one that is of the Truth (in the 
Light of God) heareth my voice. Obey my voice, and 
then we shall all be one ; as the Father is in me, and I in 



88 THE ARABTTLA. 

the Father, that you may also be one in us ; for the 
essence of all spirit is the same. The words that I 
speak are spirit and are life. Fear not them which kill 
the body (the forms and doctrines), but are not able to 
kill the soul ; but rather fear him which is able Jo 
put both soul and body in hell, by the logical tricks of 
the selfish intellect. Take my interpretation of life, 
and ye shall find rest for your souls. For my yoke is 
easy, and my burden light. This yoke is easy useful- 
ness when the spirit acts instinctively from within 
outward ; but it is a burden when the duty is imposed 
by priestcraft or fashion,. from without." 

That the whole Light should be manifested in one 
person, is conceived to be impossible. To affirm this of 
Jesus, as modern theologians do, is to say (in the 
language of Kobert Colly er, a true preacher) "that he 
knew infinitely more of every thing than all the great 
masters knew of any thing ; that his sense of what be- 
fitted the Messiah alone held him back from announcing 
the most important facts that have come in the opening 
ages ; and from doing, by a single act of the will, 
greater things than have been done by the loftiest souls 
that came after him. And I mean by this, that the 
compass, the printing-press, the locomotive, the steam- 
boat, vaccination, Peruvian bark, chloroform, ether, 
iodine, subsoil plows, photography, anthracite coal, 
air-tight stoves, horseshoes, infirmaries, sanitary commis- 
sions, cheap window-glass, the art of engraving, tea, 
eoifee, and savings banks, were just as clearly present 
in the mind of the Saviour then, as they are present in 
the world now. 

" Now, I think you will not accuse me of trying to push 



RELIGIOUS SIGNS AND MYSTERIES. 89 

my statement unfairly, when I say, that if this theory 
— that Christ on the earth knew all things, his mind a 
perfect encyclopedia of the universe and of time — be 
true, then the greatest of all the mysteries in his life, 
greater than miracle and prophecy, is this mystery, that 
he should be here, with that heart so full of pity, th|t 
hand so ready in the labor, and that tongue so wise in 
the wisdom of the divinest love ; should foresee all the 
sorrow, and agony, and death resulting from ignorance, 
through long ranges of centuries; should see all the 
steam escaping, all the poor barks creeping along the 
shore for want of a compass ; in a word, the whole dif- 
ference between that world and this — yet should main- 
tain a resolute silence ! I know it will be said that these 
things could not take root until the true time ; and, if 
this was not the true time, it were useless to reveal 
them. But I answer, that the possession of a secret that 
will benefit the world is the obligation to reveal it. We 
judge that man criminal who has found a sovereign 
remedy for cholera, and yet buries it in his grave. We 
say he did not love his fellow-men ; and so, in defending 
his silence, if he knew of a preventive for the small 
pox, and did not tell it ; or of chloroform, to assuage 
extreme human agonies, and did not tell it -we assume 
the ground, that, being in the likeness of a man, he was 
less than a man. And if you say, ' But God the Spirit 
did not reveal these things until our time, and so why 
should you expect that God manifest in the flesh would 
do it?' I answer, God the spirit is surrounded by 
mystery, his ways are past finding out. 1 accept the 
mystery just as it is, and hold on by my faith until 1 
can do better. But the ultimatum here is, that there is 



90 THE AEABULA. 

no mystery at all about it. The mystery was, how 
shall these things flash across the brain, and be revealed 
by the tongue, and done by the hand of a man ? Now, 
here is a brain in which these unutterable philanthropies 
are a quenchless fire, you say ; and an eye seeing into 
the eighteenth century, how to prevent the small-pox, 
how to save human life, human beauty, human every 
thing ; a tongue crying, i I am come not to destroy life, 
but to save it.' And in that mind a secret how to save 
life, beside which the cures that he did (apart from their 
spiritual influence) were as nothing — yet he refused to 
tell it ! So that the mystery is not in the possession of 
divinity, but in the want of humanity, if this claim be 
true. And so I do not really sorrow because he did not 
build a railroad or a steamboat, or the dome of St. 
Peter's, or anticipate the Riverside Press in printing, 
or the Waltham chronometer. There may be question- 
ing about those things : there can be no question about 
these other things. By all the holiest institutions and in- 
spirations of the human soul ; by the loftiest teachings of 
our own, and, so far as I know, of all other Bibles ; by the 
greatest utterances of his own holy, loving, and divine 
nature — if he knew every thing, he was bound at least 
to tell this, because he had the face and touch and pity 
and love of a man, or his divinity was not so good a 
thing as a decent humanity." 



STORIES OF EARLY PERIODS. 91 



CHAPTER XXIY. 

STORIES OF EARLY PERIODS. 

The infancy of the race, like the period of infancy in 
the individual, is excessively productive of grotesque 
fancies in the supernatural, which is the philosophically 
impossible. But this term "supernatural," under the 
interpretations of the wisdom-light, is a perfectly harm- 
less word, meaning the unpositive, the speculative, the 
metaphysical, the realm of unformed ideas and semi- 
poetical sentiments ; in which boundless realm, before 
the era of the inductive and exact sciences, the human 
spirit freely roamed, regardless of the limitations of 
sense or the remonstrances of intellect. And, strange 
to say, these mythical fancies were invariably connected 
with religion. St. Hippolytus relates, for example, that 
St. John the Divine is asleep at Ephesus, awaiting the 
great trumpet's twang; and Sir John Mandeville, in 
his " Travels," gives the circumstance as follows : — 

" From Patmos men go unto Ephesim, a fair citee 
and nyghe to the see. And there dyede Seynte Johne, 
and was buryed behynde the high Awtiere, in a toumbe. 
And there is a fair chirche. For Christene mene weren 
wont to holden that place alweyes. And in the toumbe 
of Seynt Johne is noughte but manna, that is clept 
Aungeles mete. For his body was translated into 
Paradys. And Turkes holden now alle that place and 
the citee and the Chirche. And all aise the lesse is 



92 THE ARABTJLA. 

yclept Turkye. And ye shalle undrestond, that Seynte 
Johne did make his grave there in his Lyf, and leyed 
himself there inne all daryk. And therefore somme 
men seyn, that he dyed noughte, but that he resteth 
there till the Day of Doom. And forsoothe there is a 
great marveule. For men may see there the earthe of 
the toumbe apertly many tymes steren and moen, as 
there weren quykke thinges under." 

The wandering Jew and the circumstances connected 
with his doom, vary in every account ; but all coincide 
in the point that such a person exists in an undyiug con- 
dition, wandering over the face of the earth, seeking rest 
and finding none. Though S. Baring-Gould, the author 
of a curious manual on " Curious Myths" (from which the 
following extracts are made), thinks the Jewish cobbler, 
who would not let Jesus sit on his door-step, may have 
been kept alive to fulfill the words, " There be some stand- 
ing here who shall not taste of death till they. see the Son 
of Man coming in his kingdom," yet there is no mention 
of the Wandering Jew, either historical or mythical, till 
the year 1228. In the sixteenth century he was an 
assistant weaver in Bohemia. Next he appeared in 
Western Asia,- as Elijah. The Bishop of Schleswig 
examined him carefully, and believed in his story of 
having seen Jesus and all the centuries. In the days 
of Cromwell he was in Leipzig. In the next century 
he appeared in England, traveled into Jutland, and 
vanished in Sweden. He has been explained as a per- 
sonification of the Jewish race. Some have identified 
him with the Gypsies. In Swabia he is a wild hunter. 

Prester John was a Priest-King reigning in un- 
imaginable pomp somewhere in Asia, over a country 



STORIES OF EARLY PERIODS. 93 

whose bourne widened and contracted according to the 
geographical knowledge of the age. He was a con- 
ceited pope, rather condescending and gracious to the 
one on the Tiber; but the latter rebuked him, and 
quoted, " Not every one that saith unto me Lord, Lord," 
&c. Orthodox Alexander, Yicar of God, believed in 
the mythical sovereign of the emerald palace, and sent 
him a letter ; but the messenger never returned, and 
who can imagine the loss to enthusiastic antiquaries! 
The myth may have grown out of Nestorianism ; and 
may have foundation in fact. 

The divining-rod is full of wonders; and all the facts 
cannot be treated with levity. That Aaron's rod 
budded and brought forth almonds is rather doubtful, 
but the evidence is not easily set aside that Jacques 
Aymar's rod helped him to find criminals. Tacitus 
speaks of a queer sort of German divination by the rod. 
The Greeks had their rhabdomancy. Even Jacob 
cheated his dames of the sheep-pastures with them. 
The Frisons had a law that murderers should be dis- 
covered by the rod. A great many doubters who 
sought to expose impostors of well-finding have con- 
verted themselves to the contrary view; and, on the 
other hand, a large number of the wonder-makers 
have failed when taken before the curious and the 
great in large cities. The power is said to languish 
under excitement; the faculties are to be in repose, 
and the attention concentrated. Bleton went into 
convulsions when standing over running water. Ange- 
lique Cottin, a poor girl, was so highly charged with 
electricity, that any one who touched her received 
a violent shock. Mdlle. Olivet had conscientious scru- 



94 THE AHABULA. 

pies against her own power. A priest and prayer got 
her out of the faith, and her power was gone. 

The story of the seven sleepers is very beautiful. 
They remained unconscious in a cave of Mount Celion 
during three hundred and sixty years. Beingf perse- 
cuted Christians, imagine their surprise when one 
of their number returned, after what he thought a 
night's rest, to find the gates of his native Ephesus 
decorated with the cross and the name of Jesus 
honored. The charming story is fruitful of poems 
and dramas ; and Mahomet has put it in the Koran, 
with the improvement that the sleepers prophesy his 
coming, just as Dr. Cumming and others patch up 
prophecy after the event. In the Museum at Rome 
is a curious and ancient representation of them in a 
cement of sulphur and plaster. 

But the myths of this kind are without number. St. 
George rose from his grave three times, and was thrice 
slain. Charlemagne sleeps in Mount Odenberg in Hess, 
seated on his throne, with his crown on his head, and 
his sword at his side, waiting till the times of Anti- 
christ, when he will wake and burst forth to avenge the 
blood of the saints. Frederick Barbarossa is in the 
great KyfFhausenberg in Thuringia. A shepherd crept 
to the heart of the mountain by a cave, and discovered 
therein a hall where sat the emperor at a table, through 
whose stone slab his red beard had grown and wound 
itself back toward his face. Rip Yan Winkle slept 
twenty years in the Katskill Mountains. Napoleon 
Bonaparte is asleep somewhere. Mandeville says St. 
John yet sleeps at Ephesus, and the earth kindly swells 
and sinks to the rhythm of his breathing. 



STORIES OF EARLY PERIODS. 95 

It is remarkable that through all these tales the 
number seven has such prominence. Barbarossa changes 
his seat every seven years. Charlemagne stretches him- 
self at similar intervals. Olger Dansk stamps his iron 
mace on the floor once every seven years. Olaf Red- 
beard of Sweden opens his eyes at precisely the same 
distance of time. The curious coincidence has been 
thought to have some relation to the winter months of 
the north. But this does not explain the Hebrew 
sevens. 

There is a myth that Moses drove the man to the 
moon who gathered sticks on the Sabbath. In Swabia 
a wood-chopper cast brambles in the way of church- 
goers, and an old woman made butter on Sunday. For 
their heinous crimes both were banished to the moon, 
and there they are to this day, bramble-bundle and 
butter- tub on backs. The man in the moon, the woman 
and her tub, the dog, the pole, the crime, the whole 
myth is of very ancient origin, probably reaching back 
to the worship of the heavenly bodies. 

The terrestrial paradise has been located in China, 
Japan, some continent east of Asia, within three days' 
journey of Prester John's empire, an island in Aus- 
tralia, Ceylon, an unapproachable fastness in Tartary, 
the top of a very high mountain in the East, Armenia, 
trans-Gangic India, all toward the rising sun ; while 
the ancient classics put the deathless land to the west. 
In his travels Sir John Mandeville comes to paradise 
and tastes of the waters of life ; indeed he tells English- 
men he had " dronken three or four sithes " from the 
fountain. The Mediaeval preacher Meffreth, who denies 
the immaculate conception, refuses also to accept the 



96 THE AEABTJLA. 

Euphrates paradise, and hoists it above the possibility 
of Noah's flood. Its four rivers rush down to earth 
with such roar as to make coasters deaf. Eirek went 
to Constantinople and learnt of the emperor that the 
earth is a million of miles in circuit, and a hundred 
thousand and forty-five miles from heaven. But Eirek 
found the goal of his journeyings, and after bravely 
meeting the dragon that guarded the bridge, he marched, 
sword in hand, into the open maw, of the beast, and in 
the transformation of a moment found himself in the 
world of beauty and everlasting life. 



THE OLD AND THE NEW. 97 



CHAPTEE XXY. 

THE OLD AND THE NEW. 

Streaming through all these curious religious fancies, 
is the light of the immortal destiny of spirit. Thus 
spirit perpetually declares its attractions, and propheti- 
cally announces its affiliations. It belongs to the 
eternal world of individualized, unselfish life ; and its 
crudest intuitions and most infantile revelations point 
thitherward as unerringly as does " the needle to the 
pole." The grand old Hindoo poem, The Bhagvat- 
Geeta, according to Mr. Ripley of the Tribune, has 
been reprinted for Mr. G. P. Philes, in the beautiful 
typography of the Bradstreet Press. It was originally 
translated from the Sanscrit, toward the close of the 
last century, at the instance of Warren Hastings, while 
Governor- General of India, and the present issue is a 
fac-simile of the English volume. The " Bhagvat- 
Geeta " forms an episode of a much larger work, which 
has been supposed to date from more than two thousand 
years before the Christian era, and containing an epic 
history of an ancient Hindoo dynasty. Oriental scholars 
have always found a favorite study in this poem, as 
illustrating the theological and ethical system of the 
Brahmins, — a form of religious mysticism congenial to 
the intellect of the East, and which has also been often 
known to captivate the imagination of more sturdy 
thinkers in European civilization. The work is in the 
5 



98 THE AEABULA. 

form of a dialogue between Kreeshna, an incarnation 
of the Deity, and a favorite pupil, whom he instructs in 
the mysteries of creation, life, virtue, and immortality. 
In its ethical spirit it approaches the sublime stoicism 
of Marcus Antoninus and Epictetus, while its theology 
is founded on the conception of an Infinite Power and 
Godhead, that is the ground of all finite existence and 
consciousness, with which it becomes identified in act. 
"I am the sacrifice," says Kreeshna; "I am the 
worship ; I am the spices ; I am the invocation ; I am 
the ceremony to the manes of the ancestors ; I am the 
provisions ; I am the fire, and I am the victim ; I am 
the father and mother of this world ; the grandsire, and 
the preserver. I am the holy one worthy to be known ; 
I am the journey of the good ; the comforter ; the 
witness ; the resting-place j the asylum, and the friend. 
I am generation and dissolution, the place where all 
things are reposited, and the inexhaustible seed of 
all nature. I am sunshine and I am rain ; I now draw 
in, and I now let forth. I am death and immortality ; 
I am entity and non-entity." The problem of human 
destiny, in its moral aspects, is solved in a similar man- 
ner. "A man being endued with a purified under- 
standing, having humbled his spirit by resolution, and 
abandoned the objects of the organs ; who hath freed 
himself from passion and dislike ; who worshipeth with 
discrimination, eateth with moderation, and is humble 
of speech, of body, and of mind ; who preferreth the 
devotion of meditation, and who constantly placeth his 
confidence and dispassion ; who is freed from osten- 
tation, tyrannic strength, vain glory, lust, anger, and 
avarice ; and who is exempt from selfishness, and in all 



\ 



THE OLD AND THE NEW. 99 

things temperate, is formed for being ' Brahm.' And 
thus being as ' Brahm,' his mind is at ease, and he 
neither longeth nor lamenteth. He is the same in all 
things, and obtaineth my (Kreeshna) supreme assist- 
ance ; and by my divine aid he knoweth, fundamentally, 
who I am, and what is the extent of my existence ; and 
having thus discovered who I am, he at length is 
absorbed in my nature." The principles of the " Bhag- 
vat-Geeta " have become familiar to students of the 
history of philosophy by the admirable illustrations of 
M. Cousin, and readers of Emerson and Theodore 
Parker can trace both its ideas and its phraseology in 
some of the most characteristic writings of those authors. 

Thus the Arabula shines, with a blaze of oriental 
conceptions of divine ideas, in the propositions and 
teachings of the Shaster and Yedas ; manifesting the 
eternal glory of its presence as jjerfectly in the Indian 
as in the European consciousness. But new thoughts 
and new inspirations have penetrated the land of " The 
Bhagvat-Geeta," and the Light is appearing in new 
forms and higher human expressions. 

Alphonse Esquieos, a French writer (to use the 
editor's preface), has written an admirable work on 
Religious Life in England, which contains a striking 
passage or two on the state of things in India. English 
ideas respecting liberty of conscience have loosened the 
bolts and bars of the old faith; the Indian temple 
tumbles into ruins in the sun, and ancient gods lie 
moldering in their wooden representatives, at the 
bottom of the wells, and nobody cares for them. But 
the new Hindoo is a " free inquirer ;" and the English 
missionary who thinks he has only to fight with the 



100 THE ARABULA. 

Buddha in that Hindoo finds that Voltaire, Colenso, 
Michelet, and Kenan are as well known to the Hindoo 
as they are to freely inquiring Europeans. As a con- 
sequence, "this is how we stand, religiously, abroad, 
after claiming a certain amount of triumph : — 

"But Christians must not be too precipitate in 
rejoicing at this triumph ; for the breaking up of the 
colossal edifice of Hindoo superstition seems but little 
likely to result in much profit to their own faith. 
Under various names, such as Brahmo-sijah, Brahmo- 
somaj, and Yeda-somajam, a new sect has lately arisen, 
which stands aloof from all relations, true or false. 
The members of these Indian fraternities agree with 
each other in one point only — the belief in a Supreme 
Being. Opposed as they are both to Christianity and 
to the religion of the Hindoos, and finding, or thinking 
that they find, in the Bible, as well as in the Vedas, 
passages which are inconsistent with science, they 
determined, as they themselves say, to cut the cable 
which connects the minds of other men with supernatu- 
ral authority. These disciples of rationalism are also 
distinguished by a liberal spirit of toleration, and they 
mutually engage to respect every opinion. They some- 
times have to observe various customary ceremonies, as, 
for instance, in marriages and burials ; but they only do 
this to avoid wounding the feelings of the community in 
which they live. With the exception of these trifling 
sacrifices to existing prejudices, their course of action 
indicates the greatest freedom of thought ; they openly 
declare, that in all forms of religion which go beyond 
pure Deism, they can recognize nothing but the lifeless 
relics of worn-out superstitions. Associations such as 



THE OLD AND THE NEW. 101 

these, surrounded by all the eclat which intellect and 
wealth can give, cannot fail to exercise a powerful influ- 
ence over the educated youth of Bombay, Madras, and 
Calcutta. Thus a generation of thinkers is being 
formed, who astonish the English missionaries by the 
boldness and comprehensiveness of their philosophical 
opinions. When they speak at public meetings, the 
high moral tone which they assume defies the censure 
of the very Christians themselves ; without making any 
distinction of race or country, they quote, in support of 
their ideas, all those authors, travelers, and savants who 
have, as it were, brought together the uttermost parts 
of the earth, and smoothed the way for the unity of the 
human race." 

As some men are learned and sagacious without 
attending a university, so some men are religious and 
spiritual without attending a church. And the time 
will come when all men shall see and know the Light, 
u from the least to the greatest ;" and unto it every 
knee " shall bow and every tongue confess," saying : 
" Behold, the height, length, breadth, and depth of True 
Eeligion are revealed and fulfilled in the union of man 
with the love, justice, power, and beauty of Omniscient 
goodness." 



102 THE ARABULA. 



CHAPTEE XXVI. 

LAMPLIGHT AND SUNLIGHT. 

Intellectual light, whose oil is sensuous observa- 
tion and external experience, is lamplight ; but the light 
of "Wisdom is the light of the sun. By intellectual 
light we perceive and value the " things of sense ;" 
while bj the light of Wisdom, whose oil is derived from 
the immortal essential principles of all life, we perceive 
and accept the " truths of eternity." 

Contemplate yourself ! Do you not find "life" in 
your affections, and " death " in your sensuous interests ? 
By the exercise of your intellectual faculties and per- 
ceptions, do you not achieve all your terrestrial and 
temporal success ? When you use them exclusively, in 
conjunction with your selfish instincts, or ordinary 
affections and interests, do you not realize, at times, that 
the higher powers of your spirit are covered with a 
blinding skepticism concerning invisible things ? Dark 
indeed is that temple when the " lights in the upper 
chamber " have gone out ! 

Now the instincts, which are the roots of the affec- 
tions — the latter, when in full-orbed development, 
becoming Intuition— are derived from the fountain of 
all life and light. But they are first radicals or 
roots — the same principles in animals as in men — and 
receive very properly the title of " instincts." Next, 
by a process of progressive development, they become 



LAMPLIGHT AND SUNLIGHT. 103 

refined and less selfish — looking after the interests and 
guarding the welfare of their own offspring and chosen 
darlings — and, still the same in animals as in mankind, 
the j are known by the higher and more appropriate 
term " affections." Next, by a continuation of the pro- 
gressively developing process, when they have rounded 
out into ultimations, magnanimous and beautiful — 
having " grown large, and public," and unselfish, but, 
above all things, loving whatsoever is Good, and Beau- 
tiful, and True, divine and eternal, with universal love 
in their hearts, and everlasting light in their eyes, 
occupying the highest chambers in the temple, holding 
open converse with the very soul of Poetry, Music, 
Painting, and Mathematics — then they receive the 
lofty and significant title of " Intuitions." But the 
charmed and most holy name for them — which is 
above all other names for human endowments, sig- 
nifying at once the possession, the exercise, and 
the fruition of the intuitive seers of the spirit — is 
"Wisdom. 

The opponent, the sworn antagonist of Wisdom, is 
Intellect. The instincts, in themselves the very quint- 
essence of selfishness, are the natural allies of the intel- 
lectual faculties. Wisdom is a strange, supernatural 
faculty when viewed and measured by the earth-looking 
eyes of the Instincts. Even the " affections," properly 
so called, do not understand the royal nature and heav- 
enly characteristics of Wisdom. The Affections rise 
like fruit-bearing branches out of the solid trunk of 
the tree of instinctive life. Therefore they sustain the 
same relation to Wisdom that is in nature established 
by the body of a tree, which is the sustaining and grand 



104 THE AKABTTLA. 

transmitting column of strength and growth, midway 
between the roots (or instincts) in the earth beneath 
and the fruit-boughs (or intuitions) in the heavens 
above. As it is impossible for the greater to be com- 
prehended by the less, so is it impossible for the in- 
stincts to sympathetically fellowship with the Intuitions. 
And inasmuch as the instincts and the Intellect are 
natural allies, as the affections naturally take sides with 
Intuition, so is there a controversy, a struggle, perpet- 
ually going on in man's nature, as between the powers 
of darkness and the powers of light. 

Why this antagonism should exist, in an organism 
elaborated by Omniscient goodness, I do not now halt to 
consider. Let us first discover the fact / then, under 
greater light, let us utilize the fact; thus, lastly, the 
origin and the wherefore of the fact will be revealed. 

The theologians and religionists, and, indeed, the 
world's profoundest philosophers, seem not to have 
made this discovery. In classifying the human mind, 
the religionists and philosophers alike adopt the short 
definition — Sense, Will, and Understanding. Then 
churchmen bring in an indictment from the Grand 
Jury of old theology, to the effect that man's soul has 
offended God, by breaking one of his eternal laws. 
Wherefore a new definition is published: "Man's 
heart is desperately wicked, depraved totally, and his 
thinking powers are twisted and blighted by the curse 
of God." On this finding man is arrested, and brought 
for trial before the tribunal of Old Theology ; whose 
throne is oriental mystery, whose history is the history 
of human tyranny and wretchedness, whose policy is 
opposed to all progress in science and knowledge, whose 



LAMPLIGHT AND SUNLIGHT. 105 

lever works on the fulcrum of human ignorance, whose 
power is almighty among the cowardly and super- 
stitious, and whose government on earth will endure as 
long as there shall exist a million minds not touched by 
the spirit-lifting light of Wisdom. 

The church's definition, therefore, is the church's 
explanation of this antagonism in man's spiritual con- 
stitution. Under their definition, what can they do, if 
they are logical, but trim their lamps and fill them with 
oil from the rock-fountains of St. Peter % The wondrous 
" light of other days " is their sun and their salvation. 
" The soul's return," not the soul's progress, is the 
burden of their evening prayer. They believe it was a 
person who said, " I am the light of the world." On 
this belief they all rush in " where angels fear to tread," 
and attempt to light their " humble tapers " by the 
lamp carried almost two thousand years ago by a 
Nazarene ! With such belief the Christians cannot 
improve themselves, nor allow of improvement in others. 
They neither enter heaven, nor let others enter, but 
swing their Peter-oil lamps, and shout : " The curse of 
God is on thee ! Plaste ye ! Haste ye ! Bow down 
at the foot of the cross ! Lay all your sins at the feet of 
Him who died to save the world !" 

But the millions do not hear, and thousands of mil- 
lions, they think, will never behold the " Light of God." 
They think heaven's blight and curse (O, beautiful con- 
sistency!) have passed over this hapless age; that the 
Eternal God has sent a strong delusion among men, that 
they might believe it and be damned; that the ship- 
wrecking monsoon of Jehovah's Omnipotent wrath has 
swept through the world of human hearts ; that, in a 
5* 



106 THE ARABULA. 

word, the whole family of man is at enmity with the 
spirit and purposes of God, and that this, and this only, 
will account for the antagonism, the darkness, the 
evil and misery in man's intellectual and spiritual 
constitution. 






GOD IS MY LIGHT. 107 



CHAPTER XXVII. 

GOD IS MY LIGHT. 

" God is my Light," the motto of the University of 
Oxford, "Dens illuminatio mea," originally slipped 
from the beautiful tongue of Arabula. Only the white 
light of Wisdom could have uttered the motto, which 
eternally shines with the golden rays of innumerable 
suns on the banners of all alumni now dwelling in 
Summer Lands. 

"Ignorance is the curse of God," said the great 
dramatist, " but knowledge the light whereby we reach 
to heaven." Substitute the term " Wisdom " for 
knowledge, and how distinctly do you hear the voice 
of Arabula ! What is that which is " without father, 
without mother, without descent, having neither be- 
ginning of days nor end of life ?" Who was, who is, 
this mysterious impersonation called " Melchisedek," 
without beginning, reft of age and place, wandering all 
through the earth, yet above the world, independent, 
self-poised, gentle as an angel, with a universal heart, 
never sick, performing cures instantly, with a word 
and a breath, binding up the broken-hearted — this high- 
born noble impersonality, this Mend of humanity, this 
sacred presence in the soul — Who ? What ? Whence ? 
Whither ? 

No man's intellectual lamplight can bring this mys- 
terious presence into photographic visibility. Wisdom, 



108 THE AUABTJLA. 

with her impersonal intuitions, is the only artist who 
can throw the image of the Angel-Arabula upon 
the burnished plate of the enlightened reason. Only 
that inextinguishable Light, which "lighteth every 
man that cometh into the world," can paint the form- 
less personality of Melchisedek. Without this lifting 
light, " my soul is among lions ;" without it, " I lie even 
among the children of men, that are set on fire, whose 
teeth are spears and arrows, and their tongue a sharp 
sword ;" without this light " my days are full of dark- 
ness," the sweet life of " my God has forsaken me," 
and I " walk in a vain shadow " from day to day in 
my lonely journey down, down to the "land of the 
silent." 






FROM DEATH TO LIFE. 109 



CHAPTEE XXVIII. 

FROM DEATH TO UFE. 

That the grave can open and the " dead arise," 1 
hiow ; for my Intellect, although impelled and nattered 
by the primal selfish instincts, " heard the Master's 
voice;" and I came forth clad in garments of purest 
white light ; and then, O, how my whole heart prayed 
that I might be spared another journey back to dismal 
hades! There is no deeper, damning death — to the 
great powers of man's immortal mind — than that death 
which stills and kills every emotion and impulse, save 
the instinct of self-preservation and self-gratification — 
an instinct that works for Self — cost what it may to 
others. 

My grave was dug not so deep as are the graves of 
some, for my death was only that of Intellect versus 
Wisdom ; in the materialisms of which, the light of the 
angel of Intuition was well-nigh extinguished. But, Oh, 
joy ! I saw the living light, and heard the love-laden 
voice of Arabula. It was a burning and " a shining 
light," and its voice was the voice of infinite and eternal 
Truth. " Marvel not at this," it said, " for the hour is 
coming in the which all that are in their graves shall 
hear my voice." Oh, glorious hour ! when all the dead 
intellects and selfish animals in the shape of men shall 
hear the voice of the Light of God. I was fully pre- 
pared to believe that they who had tried sincerely to do 



110 THE ARABULA. 

good would come forth, as I did, to " the resurrection 
of life " — beautiful, free, progressive, loving life ! While 
they who had employed their intelligence and selfish 
instincts to do evil would experience "the resurrection 
of damnation," — shameful, tyrannical, stultifying, 
shriveling, hateful death. Even this moment I shud- 
der at the remembrance that, once, merely as my own 
selfish private luxury, I was " willing for a season to 
rejoice in the light " of the pure and holy Arabula. 

But I had a positive evidence that my resurrection 
was true and perfect, and, I hoped, everlasting. My 
evidence was this : I had unfolded in my affections a 
powerful, sweet, pure love for every thing human. And 
I remembered that Arabula had said long, long ago : 
" We know that we have passed from death unto life, 
because we love the brethren" Oh, how beautiful is 
Truth ! It is death — dark, chilling, diabolizing, damn- 
ing death — to hate a human being. Arabula is the 
perfect, the eternal love-light and light-love of the 
universe ; and when it dwelleth in our superior con- 
sciousness, we not only love it without fear, but also 
love tenderly all humanity, and even the least and 
lowest things of the earth, and the earth itself; and 
likewise all things in the starry heavens, with a love 
that is unutterable, mysterious, sublime, and blossoming 
with happiness. 



LOVE WOEKING FOE OTHERS. \ 111 



CHAPTER XXIX. 

LOVE WOEEING FOR OTHEES. 

It is no part of my testimony that the Intellect, per 
se, is the source of all the follies and wickedness that 
have been perpetrated in the world. I would not 
weaken man's confidence in the natural excellence and 
inwrought integrity of his powers and endowments. It 
is against the fruits of the unresurrected intellect, which 
is based in selfish instincts and fed by experience solely 
derived through the five senses, that I protest with all 
my might. 

Soon after my glorious intellectual resurrection, — 
when, hearing the awakening voice, I passed from 
" death unto life," — I entered upon the work of serving 
and saving others. My pen and speech said : u Oh, 
brother man ! fold to thy heart thy brother." The 
holy fire began to burn on the altar of my heart. When 
the Omnipotent power of fraternal love shall be felt by 
every one — 

" Then shall all shackles fall ; the stormy clangor 

Of wild war music o'er the earth shall cease ; 
Love shall tread out the baleful fire of anger 
And in its ashes plant the tree of peace." 

No love seemed to me at that time so all-embracing 
and so heart-purifying as the love fraternal. Like the 
glory of the morning light, and yet more like the 
fertilizing warmth of the noontide sun, seemed that 



112 THE AEABULA. 

love which bound heart to heart, raised to the angel- 
state of unselfishness. Sounding in my soul were the 
familiar words — 

"How blest the sacred tie that binds, 
In union sweet, accordant minds." 

In all moments, and in all places, I could feel the very 
life of the injunction, " Love ye one another." It has 
been truly said that one of the most beautiful words 
which our language has borrowed from the Greek is 
Philanthropia / or, as we have it, Philanthropy, signify- 
ing the " Love of Man." It has a musical sound; and 
the very utterance of it begets pleasant thoughts, and 
inspires prophecies of good. The truth it unfolds, 
and the lesson it teaches to the thoughtful, when we 
come to look into its meaning, make, as it were, a 
golden link in the chain which binds us to the good 
and the great of the past. They had their inspirations, 
those old men ; they saw more or less clearly, at times, 
what ought to be among the nations, and caught sight 
of that sublime truth which recognizes the unity of our 
race. This word Philanthropy shows so much as this : 
A vision, however far off, of the relation existing 
between all men, as members of one great family ; the 
duty and pleasure of loving and helping one the other ; 
the dwelling together of the nations in peace, as being 
of the same flesh and blood and bone, and bound 
together by the ties of a common brotherhood and 
a common interest — these are the thoughts and feel- 
ings which must have lived somewhere, in some hearts, 
in the olden time ; and which, struggling for utterance, 
gave birth to this beautiful and musical speech. Plain 



LOVE WORKING FOE OTHERS. 113 

is it that to some true souls in the far-off ages of the 
Past these great truths were partially visible — at least 
a glimpse of them had been caught — else we had not 
known that noble and brave word Philanthropy. Let 
us rejoice in its existence, and seek to give a divine 
second birth in action. 

Under the plenum of this holy power of love — the 
eternal tie, unselfish, which is the happiness of angels, 
and the principle which conjoins men and angels to 
God — under the blaze of this holy fire, with which my 
entire intellect accorded, I issued a call to all who 
would, if they knew how, " overcome evil with good." 
Policy, self-guarding cautiousness, I did not consult. 

" Grown wiser for the lesson given, 
I fear no longer, for I know 
That where the share is deepest driven, 
The best fruits grow." 

The fact cannot be disguised, I said, that modern 
theories of sin, evil, crime, and misery are numerous 
and extremely conflicting. Not less antagonistic are 
existing laws, systems, and institutions respecting the 
rearing of children, and the treatment of criminals. 
The vindictive and coercive code has been for centuries 
administered to the workers of iniquity ; yet vice and 
crime seem to be increasing in proportion to the spread 
of civilization. The progressive and benevolent every- 
where begin to believe that this prevalence of crime 
and suffering is mainly traceable to erroneous doctrines 
respecting man and his acts, out of which have been 
evolved equally erroneous systems of education, tyran- 
nical institutions, and depraving plans of punishment. 
Therefore it is believed that a true philosophy of 



114: THE ARABULA. 

human existence will ultimate in more ennobling insti- 
tutions and philanthropic systems of education. 

All thoughtful and humane persons, of every pro- 
fession or form of faith, were invited to a convention, 
with a platform perfectly free to all who could throw 
what they believed to be true light upon The Cause 
and Cure of Evil. 

It was urged that the question should be presented 
in all its aspects. And it was recommended that 
persons should come prepared to treat this subject with 
dignity and wisdom, from every stand-point of observa- 
tion and discovery — the physical, social, political, intel- 
lectual, theological, and spiritual. The presence and 
influence of all true friends of Humanity were invoked, 
to speak and to hear dispassionately upon the causes of 
evil and misery ; so that the best principles and truest 
remedies might be discovered and applied. 






THE SPIRIT OF BROTHERHOOD. 115 



CHAPTEK XXX. 

THE SPIRIT OF BROTHERHOOD. 

The voice of Fraternal Love was heard by many, for 
the Light had reached and resurrected hosts of women 
and men not only, bnt a multitude of little children 
also, and the assemblage was large and influential. 
We gathered in the spirit of the " Progressive Friends," 
who said : — Mingling with the chime of church bells, 
and with the tones of the preacher's voice, or breaking 
upon the stillness of our religious assemblies, we heard 
the clank of the slave's chain, the groans of the wounded 
and dying on the field of bloody strife, the noise of 
drunken revelry, the sad cry of the widow and the 
fatherless, and the wail of homeless, despairing, poverty- 
driven 

" By foul Oppression's ruffian gluttony 
Forth from life's plenteous feast ;" 

and when, in obedience to the voice of God, speaking 
through the holiest sympathies and purest impulses 
of our Godlike humanity, we sought to arouse our 
countrymen to united efforts for the relief of human 
suffering, the removal of giant wrongs, the suppression 
of foul iniquities, we found the Church, in spite of her 
solemn professions, arrayed against us, blocking up the 
path of reform with her serried ranks, prostituting her 
mighty influence to the support of wickedness in high 



116 THE AHABULA. 

places, smiling complacently upon the haughty oppres- 
sor, "justifying the wicked for a reward," maligning 
the faithful Abdiels who dared to stand up for the 
truth, and to testify against popular crimes, — thus 
traitorously upsetting the very foundations of the 
religion she was sacredly bound to support and 
exemplify, and doing in the name of Christ deeds 
at which humanity shuddered, obliterating her indig- 
nant blushes only with the tears that welled up from 
the deeps of her great, loving heart. 

In the plenitude of omniscient truth, and aided by 
the insight of intuition, I felt, although, intellectually, 
I did not fully concur with Byron, that — 

" They never fail who die 
In a great cause. The block may soak their gore ; 
Their heads may sodden in the sun ; their limbs 
Be strung to city gates and castle walls — 
But still their spirit walks abroad. Though years 
Elapse, and others share as dark a doom, 
They but augment the deep and sweeping thoughts 
Which overpower all others, and conduct 
The world at last to freedom." 

It was a sad, foreboding thought that my intellect did 
not, even after all my interior trials, quite come up in 
perception to the lofty standard revealed by Arabula. 
Oh, must I ever again go down into hades ? Am I, 
intellectually, yet unborn ? No, no ; keep me from the 
hollow cave of doubt ! Help, help, O ye angels of the 
sacred Summer Land ! help me to stand on the solid 
rock of Wisdom, which gardenizes the earth, enlighten- 
eth the intellect, pours light through all the ties and 
affections, and leadeth to God. 

But the fear was born of the alarmed instinct of 



THE SPIRIT OF BROTHERHOOD. 117 

caution. " I am not in darkness," said I ; and " I will 
not borrow trouble." 

At that very moment the love fraternal was beauti 
fully burning and shining in my heart. Filled with its 
bounty, as the ocean is formed by uncounted rivers 
from mountain streams, I realized that the world- 
redeeming spirit of Brotherhood had descended from 
higher spheres. 

Practical works of benevolence, deeds of fraternal 
love, efforts to overcome evil with good, labors for the 
uplifting of down-trodden millions, combinations for 
deepening justice and diffusing liberty throughout the 
land, mark the present day, and this, too, notwithstand- 
ing the mighty wars which now distract and threaten 
to disintegrate the nations, and in spite of the demon 
of sectarianism, that would overthrow the temples of 
brotherly love in every land. Truly said the poet — 

" We are living, we are dwelling 
In a grand, eventful time, 
In an age on ages telling — 
To be living is sublime." 

Brotherhood, the sun of universal unity, beams with 
gladness over land and sea. A mighty spirit stands in 
the heavens before humanity, calling nations to repent- 
ance and urging individuals to action. Fraternity 
comes with the new morning, kindling a golden love- 
fire in every gentle heart, inspiring with new life and 
joy thousands who dwell far away beyond gilded hills 
and mountain summits, and strengthening mighty hosts 
with truths at once beautiful, heaven-revealing, heart- 
uplifting, and harmonious. The angelic song of 
" Brotherhood " comes from surrounding Summer- 



118 THE ARABTJLA. 

Lands, and streams like a holy river through desert 
souls and humble homes — causing the very earth to 
rejoice, and the people to sing the hymns of gratitude. 

Heaven's kingdom comes to mankind through man. 
It comes through manifestations of brotherly affection, 
through unselfish love, and through the saving deeds of 
unfolded wisdom. Chance and change, and the decay 
of ages, cannot efface from the soul the impress of fra- 
ternal love. Its changeless goodness is steadily poured 
into the open heart — causing it to swell like a fountain 
brimming over with the living waters of the Father's 
wisdom and the Mother's love. Such love brightens 
the spirit's sky, and lightens all life's burdens. In mis- 
fortune it enters at the open door, and saves your fail- 
ing and falling soul. In sickness its gentle hand is out- 
stretched to soothe and heal you. In loneliness it traces 
out your silent steps, and extends to you the hand of 
faithful friendship. 

Believe me, the human heart is full of kindness, and 
is ever ready to overflow with angelic affection. Only 
in moments of blindness and impatience do men spurn 
one another, and violently trample down the fragrant 
flowers of fraternal love. Hand in hand, heart to 
heart, soul clinging to soul, — all equal children of God 
and Nature, — travelers in the path of one destiny, — all 
facing the same way, — all progressing together toward 
higher realms of life ; thus, thus fraternally working and 
onward marching are mankind, — governed by the laws of 
necessity, — regulated by similar interests — and influ- 
enced to better growth by unchangeable principle. 
Let the world become better acquainted with itself, for 
you will find that 



the splrit of brotherhood. 119 

11 There is no dearth of kindness 

In this world of ours ; 
Only in our blindness 

Take we thorns for flowers ! 
Cherish God's best giving, 

Falling from above ; 
Life were not worth living 

Were it not for Love." 

Thus was born " The Moral Polioe Fraternity." 
Fraternal men and women enrolled themselves beneath 
its broad banner, bearing the motto : " Let no one call 
God, Father, who calls not Man, Brother." The 
members, while receiving and enjoying the co-operation 
of minds who inhabit higher spheres, held that natural, 
persistent, progressive agencies were required to bring 
the heavenly state on earth. The effect of the frater- 
nity was to harmonize the ideas and sentiments of its 
members, and to direct their benevolence and labors 
upon individuals in discord, in misfortune, in sickness, 
in prison, in poverty, in crime, in ignorance, and in 
misery. 

A humanitarian movement so natural and fraternal, 
or something akin to it, I thought, would build its 
altars throughout civilization. Its plan of operation 
was broad, comprehensive, philanthropic, and practical. 
The ends of charity and justice to individuals can be 
surely and quickly accomplished through the instru- 
mentality of a self-moving body so simply and effec- 
tively organized. I thought that every person would 
wish to become a "member" of an organization in 
which no one member could " suffer " without attract- 
ing the attention and securing the sympathy of " the 
whole body." Unlike many self-protective and bene- 



120 THE AKABTTLA. 

ficial societies, this plan did not exclude Woman from 
any of its departments, privileges, or benefits. A solemn 
covenant was thus made between man's spirit-inmost, 
the universe of Angels, and the Most High. 

It was urged that a lost and " a shipwrecked Brother " 
could not be reached and saved unless the Body had 
" living members " in every part of the land. Frater- 
nities, with few signs and secrets, should multiply, and 
they will. Darkness and despair will roll away from . 
human hearts on the approach of these redeemed 
Brothers and Sisters. The lamps of Hope will once 
more shine o'er man's bewildered lot ; in the secret 
chambers of long-suffering hearts a new life will come 
forth ; and homeless women, young and old, under 
equal care, and blest by faithful justice, will stand 
resurrected by the side of their noblest brothers. 

A mighty lever for accomplishing good among the 
millions was thus born, — a Christ in the manger, over 
whom the angels sang " glad tidings of great joy — 
peace on earth, good-will to all men." Who can do 
more for the individual than a loving-hearted woman or 
man % " Though wandering in a stranger-land," the 
truly fraternal is the sure medium of loving-kindness to 
a Brother or a Sister in affliction. The morning stars 
did not more harmoniously chant the songs of truth. 
Just think of overcoming evil, and shedding, whenever 
you can, light and love in desert hearts I To prevent 
crimes, to lessen evils, to remove ignorance, to lift the 
fallen, to brighten the weapons of truth, to oppose 
intemperance, to resist sectarianism, to overcome pas- 
sioii, to strengthen virtue, to dethrone tyranny, to pro- 
mote progress, to do all the good you can to whomso- 



THE SPIRIT OF BROTHERHOOD. 121 

ever and wheresoever. „ What mission more full of 
human sympathy and love, or more grateful to grief- 
stricken, time-tossed, joy-bereft, suffering, saddened 
humanity 1 Your spirit will grow under the warmth 
of heavenly blessings. "With wide-extended arms it 
will impartially embrace the acquaintance and the 
stranger, and freely shower fertilizing influences upon 
kindred, neighbors, foes, and friends. 



122 „ THE AKABULA. 

CHAPTEE XXXI. 

A CHILLING WIND. 

A few kindred ones residing in the metropolis, into 
whose inner life the light of Arabula had penetrated, 
engaged actively in the work ; and seven of the number 
were, by the people interested, elected trustees and man- 
agers of the institution for the first year. They procured 
the legal certificate of incorporation, under and by virtue 
of an Act passed by the Legislature of the State of 
New York, in the year 1848, entitled, " An Act for the 
Incorporation of Benevolent, Charitable, Scientific, and 
Missionary Societies," and Acts subsequently passed. 
And it was declared in the application, that a the busi- 
ness and objects of said Association are to furnish aid to 
the destitute, instruction to the ignorant and degraded, 
and employment and homes to the poor and friendless, 
and thus take away incentives to crime." 

The few workers hoped much and accomplished 
much. There was a beautifulness in the righteousness 
of their free offerings. It was felt to be a glorious 
privilege, and not a hardship and a dry duty, to work 
for those in poverty and disease. 

But the imp of Selfishness arose like Apolyon in our 
path ; not in the associated workers, but in those for 
whom they worked. Impostors, simulating abject 
poverty, attempted to avail themselves of our bounty ; 
ten of this class would apply for assistance, to one real 
case of sorrow and despair. "We found these real cases, 



A CHILLING WIND. 123 

and exposed the impostors, by a careful system of visita- 
tion. The name and residence of every applicant 
were entered upon a journal. Then letters bearing 
such name and address were immediately sent to two 
members of the association, requesting the recipient to 
forthwith investigate the case recorded. Care was 
specially taken that neither had knowledge of the 
other's intended visit. The object was to get from two 
investigators (one a man and the other a woman) of 
the same case, testimony which could be compared and 
made a basis of work in the applicant's behalf. The 
facts and the fictions developed by the visitors were 
elicited by asking the applicant's occupation ? Age ? 
Place of birth ? Whether married, widowed, or single 1 
How long in country, or city ? Number of persons for 
whom relief is asked ? Whether relief is received from 
any relative or acquaintance ? Whether assisted by any 
charitable institution, and how much ? Any means of 
support, and what are they ? Member of any Church or 
religious society ? If any sick ; how many, and how 
long ? These questions were put by each visitor. 

The cupidity and rapacity of the instinct of Selfish- 
ness came out in bold relief. It being ascertained that 
ten-elevenths of all applicants were self-seeking, dirty, 
idle, aimless social impostors, the members changed 
their labors somewhat, so as to search out and help the 
really suffering. I need not dwell upon the amount of 
holy work performed by this quiet method. We did not 
let our right hands know what our left hands accom- 
plished ; and although the good done was not large, the 
quality was like the love of angels. 

Our usefulness was limited by the lack of money in 



124: THE AEABULA. 

our treasury. One day, while walking through the 
street, " filled with an ever-shifting train," I met a 
wealthy merchant acquaintance, who kindly asked, 
" What are you doing now days V 9 

" Many things," I replied : " Editing and publishing, 
lecturing twice on the first day of the week (usually 
called Sunday), superintending a Progressive Lyceum 
full of children, acting as president and treasurer of the 
Moral Police Fraternity, and constantly and courageously 
searching for truth." 

"Well" (with a cold, practical, hardened, selfish, 
sarcastical expression spreading over his honest coun- 
tenance), " you've got a damn big job on hand." 

"Yes," said I, just a little thrown back upon my- 
self; "yes, but before me lies all eternity, and you 
know I do not like idleness." 

" What are you trying to do with that Fraternity ?" 

" We are trying to help those in trouble, and to pre- 
vent crime, by helping the poor (specially poor women) 
to remunerative employment." 

" That sounds very well, very well, very well indeed ; 
but, my dear sir, it won't amount to a row of pins." 
And he sent the atmosphere of his cold eyes upon me, 
with an arrogant, self-conceited positiveness which pro- 
duced an effect analogous to a northwest wind suddenly 
blowing upon one's warm flesh in the middle of August. 

But I replied : " We have already done many chari- 
table things, helping and saving more than one home- 
less girl and boy, and aiding many wounded soldiers 
on their weary way to anxious friends at home." 

61 I'll tell why you won't succeed," he rejoined. " You 
are not doing your work in the name of Jesus Christ." 



A CHILLING WIND. 125 

" True, neither do we work in the name of Lincoln, 
President ; nor in the name of Napoleon, emperor; nor 
in the name of Confucius, philosopher ; nor in the name of 
Socrates, psychologist — but, instead, we work in the pres- 
ence of God and angels, and in the name of Humanity P 

" You don't understand me," resumed the merchant. 
"What I mean is, it matters not how pretty your 
language is, your charitable plans, and all that. If 
you don't work under the wings of some established 
religious denomination, your institution will be bank- 
rupt in six months." 

" We propose," I answered, " to work independent of 
any sectarian body, and do good where we can to a Hindoo 
the same as a Christian, making no difference on account 
of country, sex, color, or belief. And yet the. Fraternity 
affiliates and co-operates, as far as practicable, with the 
municipal police, all charitable institutions, school sys- 
tems, and industrial associations, in accordance with 
objects set forth in the ' Letter of Instructions,' for the 
detection and oyerthrow of ignorance, poverty, injustice, 
corruption, and tyranny — for the overcoming of evil with 
good, and the development of the Kingdom of Heaven on 
earth". 45 ' 

" All that's well enough, well enough, but you can't 
succeed." 

" Our treasury is rather low," said I. " Cannot you 
do something V ' 

" No, I have as much as I want to do to take care of 
my own family. They must go to meeting somewhere, 
and I am now paying all I can afford for that purpose." 
And the feathery fumes of his first-class cigar covered 
my face, and so besmoked the air I could scarcely 
breathe. I said : — 



126 THE AEABULA. 

" Allow me to ask you a question ?" 

" Certainly, certainly, my dear sir — go on." 

" Do you smoke cigars every day ?" 

" Yes ; every day for the past ten years ; my cigars, 
and a glass of lager now and then, is about all the damn 
comfort I have during business hours." 

" Well, be kind enough to tell me exactly how much 
your cigars cost you per annum ?" 

" Well, let me see. Oh, I don't smoke all I buy. you 
understand. A gentleman must always look out for 
the comfort of his friends, you know. Well, let me 
think. Excuse me, your question is rather impertinent, 
ain't it ?" 

" Oh, no ; not at all. Not being a smoker myself, I 
am naturally a little curious to know." 

"Well, well; all right. Three times ten are thirty, 
add five; multiply thirty-five by twelve, makes four 
hundred and twenty. Yes, that's about it. Four hun- 
dred and twenty dollars a year I pay for cigars." 

" Now," said I, kindly, " I shall not say one word 
about the fllthiness, the uselessness, the unwholesome- 
ness of tobacco ; but this proposition I make to } r ou : — 
That you pay into the treasury of the Fraternity every 
year just half the money you spend for cigars, and you, 
having an expensive and fashionable family, need not 
increase expenditures, if you will smoke just half the 
amount of the narcotic weed." 

The merchant smiled scornfully, not to say bitterly 
and revengeful, looked at his watch, stiffly bowed, 
blushed with a momentary sense of unworthiness, and 
rapidly walked away. But I felt a chilling wind 
whistling and shrieking around my heart. 



STRENGTH OUT OF WEAKNESS. 127 



CHAPTER XXXII. 

STRENGTH OUT OF WEAKNESS. 

The merchant was a true prophet. He was, he is, 
a positive, selfish, intelligent, go-a-head man of the 
world. All matters of public financial interest engage 
his best powers. He spends twelve thousand dollars a 
year for a fashionable family life and household conve- 
niences. He is a decided force in the great city of 
America, and he knows it. He is majestically self-con- 
ceited, arrogant, dogmatic, and yet blest with a large 
nature, and, being full of warm animal, social, con- 
vivial instincts, he is a first-rate club man, a successful 
merchant, influential in political circles, always gets 
elected to a high office under the City Government, 
attends a rich up-town church once every Sunday ; and 
yet, in secret, is four-fifths an atheist ; but, in the 
reserved fifth part of his nature, longs for the celestial 
light of Arabula, and takes every opportunity to inves- 
tigate the scientific relations between mankind and the 
inhabitants of the Summer Land. 

But he sent a thrill of horrible doubt into my warm 
heart. The dreary darkness of hades once more opened 
before me, but I did not enter there. The Arabula 
had beautifully spoken to my soul through Emerson : 
" Our strength grows out of our weakness. The indig- 
nation which arms itself with secret forces does not 
awaken until we are pricked and stung, and sorely 



128 . THE ARABTTLA. 

assailed. A great man is always willing to be little. 
Whilst he sits on the cushion of advantages, he goes to 
sleep. When he is pushed, tormented, defeated, he has 
a chance to learn something ; he has been put on his 
wits, on his manhood ; he has gained facts ; learns his 
ignorance ; is cured of the insanity of conceit ; has got 
moderation and real skill. The wise man throws him- 
self on the side of his assailants. It is more his interest 
than it is theirs to find his weak point. The wound 
cicatrizes and falls off from him like a dead skin, and 
when he would triumph, lo ! he has passed on invul- 
nerable. ' Blame is safer than praise. I hate to be 
defended in a newspaper. As long as all that is said is 
said against me, I feel a certain assurance of success. 
But as soon as honeyed words of praise are spoken for 
me, I feel as one that lies unprotected before his 
enemies. In general, every evil to which we do not 
succumb is a benefactor. As the Sandwich Islander 
believes that the strength and valor of the enemy he 
kills passes into himself, so we gain the strength of the 
temptation we resist. * ; * * * Let a 
stoic open the resources of man, and tell men they are 
not leaning willows, but can and must detach them- 
selves ; that with the exercise of self-trust, new powers 
shall appear ; that a man is the word made flesh, born 
to shed healing to the nations; that he should be 
ashamed of our compassion, and that the moment he 
acts from himself, tossing the laws, the books, idolatries, 
and customs out of the window, we pity him no more, 
but thank and revere him, — and that teacher shall 
restore the life of man to splendor, and make his name 
dear to all history." 



THE FACE OF HUMAN LITE. 129 

CHAPTEE XXXIII. 

THE FACE OF HUMAN LIFE. 

The face of human life is more wondrous and beau- 
tiful than imagination can paint, when seen in the 
tender and holy " light " which cometh from above. 
Though sundered far, yet, as by an ineffable tie of 
imitation, all men come very near together, and con- 
sociate kindly as members of one family. 

One morning, not long after the last conversation, 
the tranquil deep and quickening "light" filled the 
world with golden grandeur. It seemed to illuminate, 
with a sweet expression of unusual gladness, " the melan- 
choly face of human life." Streams of golden beauty 
flooded the lowest caves of poverty and wretchedness. 
In that beauty I saw descending a spirit of mercifulness, 
a magnetic rain of holy tenderness, dripping through 
the Stygian darkness that hung over our rudi- 
mental sphere. It changed the hideous night of 
human evil into a bright, happy day. The rivers of 
life swelled with the fullness of gladness, and the 
oceans of love ebbed and flowed musically, with the 
reciprocal rhythmical tides of infinite wisdom.- 

In that light I contemplated society in different parts 

of the world. And there and then was born in my 

bosom, with a grander power for work, an infinite hope 

and trust ; yea, a higher knowledge of the possibilities 

and achievements in the future history of human nature. 

And I saw that : — 
6* 



130 THE AKABTTLA. 

" No radiant pearl, which crested fortune wears — 
No gem that twinkling hangs from beauty's ear ; 
Nor the bright stars, which night's blue arch adorn, 
Nor rising suns, that gild the vernal morn, 
Shine with such luster, as the tear that breaks 
For others' woe, down virtue's manly cheeks." 

But knowing that some of my fellow-workers did not 
perceive the " face of human life," either in its " better 
or worse " aspects, I went to my desk and painted the 
picture, and mapped- out the field of work for philan- 
thropists, thus : — 

1. Yagrant Children. — Thousands are born and 
cradled amid scenes of drunkenness, beggary, sen- 
suality, and crime. They are early taught the low 
vices of the- rum-hole, dance-house, and brothel. Talk 
with them in the spirit of an angel's love. Find out 
where they sleep, what they do day by day, and by 
what means they obtain their subsistence. Many of 
them beg, others peddle, some pilfer, and too many sell 
themselves to secure a living. 

2. Orphans. — Many, having ignorant and vile 
parents, are orphaned from their earliest moments. 
Their tenderest and most spiritual impulses are 
crushed ; their tongues are trained to the language 
of ignorance, cruelty, and vice ; houseless, forsaken, 
hungry, dirty, and immoral, they are orphans, and, like 
those who have no parents, need your solicitude, loving- 
kindness, and protection. All such want good homes 
in the country. The warmth of spiritual hearts will 
elevate their affections and purify their lives. 

3. Diseased. — Give to such a few words of instruc- 
tion concerning the laws and conditions of Life and 



THE FACE OF HUMAN LIFE. 131 

Health. Caution them against the evils arising from 
the use of alcohol and tobacco. Encourage them to 
abandon all habits which tend to prostration, sensuality, 
and disease. A few words may, in after years, take 
root and save the little sufferer. Bestow healing from 
your magnetic hands. Let no opportunity of doing 
good escape you. 

I. Street Quarrels. — Children whose birthplace 
was in the midst of dissipation and crime, are quarrel- 
some and profane in the streets. Xever fail to speak to 
either boys or girls when you see them disputing, or hear 
them using vulgar and profane language. Step in 
between them at once, but invariably with great gentle- 
ness. Ascertain, if possible, the cause of their quarrel 
and fighting. Explain the better way. Instruct them to 
walk in the paths of wisdom. They will feel and 
acknowledge that you love them ; and that, though a 
stranger, you are a true friend to them. 

5. Destitute Women. — There are multitudes of this 
class — young girls, and women of all ages — who nescl 
timely counsel and wise assistance. They want faithful 
friends, and opportunities to gain their living by honest 
toil. Superintendents of the Poor, the Commissioners 
of Emigration, and the Governors of the Almshouse 
have great duties and responsibilities in behalf of this 
class of women. You should know what can be done 
with and through these Institutions. You can point 
out to many a lone heart the way to industry, purity, 
and happiness. Be a true guide to the stranger, and a 
source of strength to the poor and fallen. 

6. Unfortunates. — Many have gone into misfortune 
and crime. Thev wait your healing friendship. Thcv 



132 THE ARABULA. 

have had no society but that of vice-incrusted men — 
swearers, drunkards, thieves, profligates, and criminals. 
They want you to speak to their souls the words of 
fraternal welcome to a higher life. Give them knowl- 
edge of the angels. Unfold to their minds the Father's 
wisdom and the Mother's love. Find a kind home for 
the honest-hearted girl, and procure profitable labor for 
the impoverished and broken-spirited woman.* She 
is your unfortunate Sister. She is pure and beau- 
tiful within. You will meet her after death in the 
Summer Land. Fail not to do her much good. 

7. Imprisoned. — Hundreds of women have abandoned 
themselves to low vices — petit larcenies, pauperism, 
and other misdemeanors from which you can arrest and 
wholly redeem them. By the sentence of the Court, 
under the laws of the State, such Sisters are imprisoned 
like masculine criminals of deeper depravity. Thus 
they fall beneath self-respect, into a moral condition 
below the state from which they offended the interests 
of society. They need your timely aid. If possible, 
keep them from prison. Stand between them and the 
requisitions of the law. Shield them from the imperti- 
nent questionings of lawyers. Let your fraternal love 
warm the heart of the criminal woman. Let the light 
of your better faith shine upon her -pathway. INTo part 
of your work can be more successful. 

8. Intemperate Men. — The rum-shop is the death- 
gate of society. It is the fountain of want, wretched- 

* Recently a movement has been inaugurated for " Working Women " 
in New York, which, if it can be kept non-sectarian, will accomplish 
desirable results. What is now most needed is a " Temporary Home " 
for girls and young-women who seek aid to rise from evil. 



THE FACE OF HUMAN LIFE. 133 

ness, beggary, vice, cruelty, crime, and sensuality. 
Sore-eyed, dirty, filthy, houseless, forsaken, hungry 
children are born and cradled in the hovels, garrets, 
damp cellars, and loathsome alleys which are sought 
by the victims of intemperance. In this city the youth- 
ful population — the offspring of intemperate parents — 
consists of " newsboys," " street-sweepers," " dock- 
boys," " beggars of cold victuals," " cinder-snipes," 
"peddlers of stolen articles," " boot-blacks," and 
" dead-rabbits." There are fifty thousand children in 
Eew York who never enter any place of instruction. 
The cause of this over -population of unfortunates is in- 
temperance. Thousands of children originate in sen- 
suality. Of 32,172 men sent to prison in one year, 
30,200 were victims of alcohol. These men want your 
fraternal arms to arrest them in their career. They 
can be saved through love and truth. Instruct them in 
the laws of life and immortality. Impress them with 
the " consequences " of their bodily and mental habits. 
Teach them concerning the life after death — of the 
realities of the Summer Land — where the results of the 
practices in this life are revealed as parts of the indi- 
vidual's character. 

9. Criminals.— This class is large and increasing. 
They are for the most part men who emanate from 
foreign penitentiaries and foreign poor-houses. Such 
characters are shipped to this country, and our jails, State- 
prisons, .. almshouses, and asylums become filled with 
them. Yet they are children of Father God, — the 
offspring of good Mother nature, — and are destined to 
live and bloom in the gardens of eternity. They are 
Irish, Germans, Italians, English, French, Polanders, 



134: THE AKABTTLA. 

Welsh, Portuguese, Hungarians, Scotch, and Africans. 
The cost to the people of the United States, of arrest- 
ing, convicting, and punishing these criminals, is enor- 
mous — being not less than $19,000,000 (nineteen mil- 
lion dollars) every year. The combined salaries of the 
lawyers amount to $35,000,000 per annum. Tobac- 
co and rum — the active agents of vulgarity and crime 
— cost one hundred and forty millions ($140,000,000) 
every year. Of course criminals are being rapidly 
multiplied. Intemperance is at the bottom of it all. 
The condition of these criminals calls for your fra- 
ternal love and good works. From their imprisonments 
they beseech you to visit them. Eternity alone can 
reveal the good your ministrations may do for them. 
Some of them are weary and broken-hearted ; others 
are bitter toward their enemies, and vindictive ; the 
first need strength, and the latter demand the lessons 
of wisdom. You can convey glad tidings to their grate- 
ful hearts. Lead them out of darkness, and obtain their 
pardon. There will be joy in heaven when one such is 
redeemed from his discords and evil. 

10. Disabled Animals. — Al ways be ready to assist the 
fallen, whether animal or human. The lower king- 
doms should feel the gentle, healing love of your justice 
and harmony. The harmonial age should descend, like 
a universal blessing, to the fishes, birds, and animals. 
They live for us, and serve us day by day, and are sus- 
ceptible to the law of kindness. 

11. The Abused. — Cruelty and injustice should not 
be meted out to dependent creatures. Whipping, 
stoning, maiming, teasing, or otherwise abusing crea- 
tures beneath manj should not be permitted. It is 



THE FACE OF HUMAN LIFE. 135 

your duty to arrest the attention of men or boys when- 
ever they transgress the law of kindness. 

12. Fighter. — It is especially your mission to sepa- 
rate animals, as well as men or boys, who may be en- 
gaged in fighting. Street fights and neighborhood 
quarrels come within your sphere of operations. Always 
be peacemakers.* 

" All history shows," says a magazine writer, " that 
familiarity with the sufferings of inferior animals infal- 
libly leads to cruelty toward one's own species. Tastes 
are vitiated, hearts hardened, minds brutalized by 
such acts, till they acquire an appetite and thirst for 
blood. Thus the barbarities of the Coliseum, where 
polished Romans sought their sport and pastime in the 
savage rending and dying agonies of brute animals, led 
in due time to the demand for hecatombs of human 
sacrifices ; and who can tell how often from such scenes 
as these veterinary amphitheaters of France, reeking 
with the warm blood of writhing victims, may have 
gone forth a Xemesis to mete out the same measure to 
the sons and daughters of the land ? 

" In the hideous catalogue of cruelties which have 
marked each successive revolution in that country, 
human creatures have, in numberless instances, been 
mangled, mutilated, and tortured to death with equally 
ruthless indifference. ' Murders were committed whole- 
sale,' as one of their own writers has observed, ' not from 
any lust or revenge, or avarice, but merely from the lux- 
ury to the perpetrators of seeing their victims die, to feast 

* Since the suspension of the Moral Police, "A Society for the Pre- 
vention of Cruelty to Animals " has been duly organized in New York, 
and is doing great good. 



136 THE AKABTJLA. 

the ear with their groans, and to delight the eye with 
their contortions,' till these fiends in human form 
attained to such a refinement of cruelty, that witnesses 
of their deeds are known to have died with horror. 

" Time was, as Pope tells us, when our huntsmen 
passed upon the ladies of quality who were present at 
the pleath of a stag, the savage compliment of putting 
the knife into their hands, to cut the throat of a help- 
less, trembling, and weeping creature ; but times and 
manners have changed. Our women are now cast in 
softer mold, and loathe the infliction and the inflictor 
of cruelty. The bare recital of these atrocities moves 
them to tears. Surely in the land where Rosa Bonheur 
has shown upon the glowing canvas — in touches of 
nature which make us feel 'the whole world kin' — 
how like ourselves horses may be in their affections and 
their joys, there are not wanting noble women who can 
feel that, like us, these poor dumb fellow-creatures of 
ours have their sufferings, too — miseries enough from 
the injustice and ingratitude of man, without any 
aggravation of them from his wanton barbarity. 
Surely in a country which sends forth her Sisters 
of Charity in thousands, to minister, with unwearied 
self-devotion, to suffering humanity, some good angels 
will be found to set about this work of mercy — a task 
which will win for them the honor of the good and the 
brave, and be not unremembered of Him whose 'tender 
mercies are over all His works.' " 

Of criminals much might be written. The history 
of Windsor Prison (Vt.) was investigated, and the fol- 
lowing testimony on the religious question is submitted : 
" It has been very often said that the convicts of State 



THE FACE OF HUMAN LIFE. 137 

prisons are either Atheists, Deists, or TJniversalists, 
than which, however, nothing can be further from the 
truth. I have known as many as five hundred while 
they were in confinement, and I have always made it a 
practice to learn the religious opinions of all with whom 
I have conversed, and what I am going to write may be 
depended on as the actual result of my personal in- 
quiries. 

" Those whom I have known have been educated in 
the doctrines of the endless punishment school, and but 
few have departed from these doctrines. I have found 
only two Atheists, not one Deist, and but one ITni- 
versalist. The doctrine of endless punishment is — 
strongly and broadly speaking — the orthodoxy of State 
prisoners. I am confident of the truth of this state- 
ment, and I make it not by way of slur, or insinuation 
against any sect of Christians, but as a fact which all 
denominations may use as they may have occasion. 
Yery many of the convicts have been members of 
churches, and a few of them have been preachers. 
This is a subject of painful reflection; it shows how 
extremely liable the best of men are to be overcome by 
temptation, and says to those who glory in their own 
strength, ' Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed 
lest he fall.' " 



138 THE ARABTTLA, 



CHAPTEE XXXIY. 

THE GREATEST WONDER OF ALL. 

The bells of Time tolled solemnly one evening, and 
I heard a voice, which made me tremble through and 
through — a voice which poured out of the sky like the 
mellow-throated nightingale, yet sad with the holy 
depth of an angel-mother's love — the same voice that I 
had heard years and years ago, when first journeying 
up and down the mountains with the Magic Staff, say- 
ing : " Gather-in-the- Children • they-will-bring-to-earth- 
the-Kingdom-of- Heaven," 

" Thanks ! thanks !" I exclaimed. " Your voice, 
mother, never before sounded so sweetly ; never did it 
impart a message more welcome." 

And from that hour my work was specially directed 
to the discovery of the laws and needs of the spirit of 
Childhood. The brightest blossoms in the land, I saw, 
were children. The greatest angels were planet-born 
and reared by terrestrial parents. Little children die, 
but they at once ascend in the arms of their celestial 
friends, and by them are led into heavenly paths, where 
love and wisdom bloom with an immortal beauty. The 
sky-schools must be discovered, revealed, and instituted. 
The starry ways of wisdom are ways of pleasantness. 
Let us look clairvoyantly into " those mighty spheres 
that gem infinity ;" let our eyes convey inwardly the 



THE GREATEST WONDER OF ALL. 139 

high meanings of the mountains, the leaves, and the 
streams of the Summer Land. 

Panoplied by this consecration and positive resolve, 
the rough squalls and chilling winds of adult selfish- 
ness could no longer visit me. The haughtiness and 
limitations of the questioning intellect could not now 
return. Pure white clouds began to float in the clear 
blue of my spirit's sky. They were filled with the 
dewy blessings of skies infinitely more lofty and super- 
pern al. 

The work was before me, extending into the future 
like an unlimited landscape, and I accepted it.* All 
my friends wondered, and many objected to the misap- 
propriation of time and powers susceptible of a wider 
range. It seemed to them that I had deserted the army 
of great progressive labors, and gone over to the trifling 
occupation of " keeping a Sunday-school." But the 
"light" shone around me unceasingly; the Magic 
Staff was firmly in my grasp ; and so, whether under- 
stood or misunderstood, my path was straight, my 
work was beautiful, and the yoke easy to bear. 

Yery soon I discovered that the greatest wonder in the 
world is a baby. It is a little world of miracles, a little 
separate sphere of infinite possibilities, incognizant of 
the world around it ; with wondrous eyes wide open ; 
its screaming, laughing, sighing mouth ; its fair, sweet, 
round form ; the autocratic impatience of its tiny 
hands ; its flower-like unfoldings from day to day ; the 
future-feeling hand of its whole instinctive nature ; yea, 



* What was discovered and practically put forth, the reader can find in 
the author's Manual for " Children's Progressive Lyceums." 



140 THE ARABULA. 

the greatest wonder is a little, a very little child — lying 
trustingly, sleeping, waking, crying, crowing, on the 
ever-welcoming bosom, of its mother. 

How expressive the words of an English writer, Mr. 
James Martineau : — " There is no sentiment more natu- 
ral to thoughtful minds than that of reverence for child- 
hood. Many sources both of mystery and love meet in 
the infant life. A being so fresh from non-existence 
seems to promise us some tidings of the origin of souls : 
a being so visibly pressing forward into the future, 
makes us think of their tendency. While we look on 
the \ child as father of the man,' yet cannot tell of 
what hind of man — all the possible varieties of charac- 
ter and fate appear for the moment to be collected into 
that diminutive consciousness ; that which may be the 
germ of any, is felt as though it were the germ of all ; 
the thread of life, which, from our hand that holds it, 
runs forward into instant darkness, untwines itself there 
into a thousand filaments, and leads us over every track 
and scene of human things ; — here through the passages 
where poverty crawls ; there, to the fields where glory 
has its race ; — here, to the midnight lake where medita- 
tion floats between two heavens ; there to the arid sands 
where passion pants and dies. Infancy is so naturally 
suggestive, it is the representative of such various pos- 
sibilities, that it would be strange did we not regard it 
with a feeling of wonder. 

" There was a theory in ancient times, and somewhat 
revived in these days, that the souls of all men come 
hither from a pre-existent state, where they dwelt within 
the shelter and near the light of God ; where truth and 
love were as affluently poured on perception, as light 



THE GREATEST WONDER OF ALL. 141 

and sound upon the senses here ; and the sublimest 
thoughts of beauty, of virtue, of science, of Deity, 
streamed amid the spirits of that purer air, like sun- 
beams amid the clouds, bathing them in glory. Birth 
into this world was the transference of the mind from a 
celestial to an earthly life ; its benumbing contact with 
material things ; its retirement from the boundless and 
brilliant freedom of a spiritual life, to the dark and nar- 
row cave of a corporeal being. The further it advanced 
into the interior of its mortal existence, and the more 
skilled it became in groping along the ways of experi- 
ence, the more faint grew the impression of the immor- 
tal region it had left, and the more dim were the rays 
of reminiscence that yet painted a divine vision on its 
path. Education was a process of forgetfulness ; the 
gradual extrusion of the godlike by the human ; the 
drowning of abstract truth in experimental knowledge ; 
the tapering-off of sublime perceptions of the universal 
into mean individual sensations. When, under the in- 
fluence of this doctrine, Plato looked upon a child, he 
saw through that shell of life an intelligence fresh from 
God ; it was a star dropped from its sphere. Still filled 
with dreams and memories of the invisible, half present 
still in its divine abode, it was a thing of sanctity to 
behold ; for its orb of existence floated yet on the mar- 
gin of the unknown world, and, though creeping on to 
be eclipsed by the shadows of mortality, had its edge 
yet illumined by the past. 

" But childhood presents not the wreck, but the ele- 
ments, of a heavenly existence ; not the ruin, but the 
design, of a temple not made with hands. Its glory is 
not of the past, but of the future ; its experience is to be 



14:2 THE AEABULA. 

not a loss, but a gain, of truth and goodness ; its edu- 
cation here, not a vain struggle to preserve memories 
that inevitably vanish, but an aspiration, which can 
never disappoint the willing heart, after mental and 
moral excellence, rising always to more godlike forms. 
It were a task of sadness to take up the infant life, as if 
it were the fallen petals of a celestial flower, borne to 
our feet by the stream of things, and every moment 
fading more ; but it is a task of gladness to accept it as 
the seed and germ of an everlasting growth, which, 
planted in the rock, and strengthened by the storms of 
earth, shall bloom at length in the eternal fields. 

" To educate a child is an office of which no one can 
think lightly. To administer perceptions, and unfold 
the faculties in their season and proportion ; to give 
power to the affections, without impairing their sym- 
metry; to develop, in their right order, and to their 
full intensity, the great ideas of duty and of God ; to 
exhibit human virtues and relations in so beautiful an 
aspect, that the soul may pass from them with ease to 
the venerating love of the Infinite Mind, is a task of 
responsibility so solemn, as to invest every parent's life 
with the sanctity of a divine mission. 

" If the philosopher's doctrine had been the true one, 
and the soul had been like a bird fallen from the skies, 
— its plumage soiled in the dust, and its forces drooping 
in our heavier air — it would seem a cruel office to 
stimulate it to ascend again, by convulsive efforts, to an 
element native, but natural no more. But as the truth 
really stands, we have not to provoke a strength jaded 
and expiring, but to aid and develop one that is half 
formed ; ourselves to bear it awhile into the heights ' as 



THE GEEATEST WOXPEK OF ALL. 14:3 

upon eagles' wings ;' and then lannch it from the preci- 
pice alone, to sweep down the gale, and soar into the 
light it loves. 

" Many, however, have but a feeble impression of the 
delicacy and responsibility ofjthis task — of training the 
early mind to aspire, by the power of the noblest ideas. 
There is no department of education in which wrong 
methods are so fatal : — in which the conveyance of 
a thought into the mind at an unhappy moment, or 
by an unhappy process, may leave a more indelible and 
prejudicial effect ; in which the penetrative and con- 
siderate spirit of sympathy — which is the true secret of 
educational as of all other moral power — is more abso- 
lutely demanded ; in which different minds more require 
to have their individuality consulted ; yet is there none 
to which a more hard, technical, and wholesome system 
is applied." 



144 THE AEABULA. 



CHAPTEE XXXIY. 

MOODS AND TIDES. 

The new work prospered and expanded over the 
land, becanse its spirit-foundations, holy aims, and at- 
tractive methods harmonized with the rational sense 
and the primal instincts of every non-sectarian father 
and mother. But infinitely more will it prosper and 
bear the fruits of righteousness in the great future of 
humanity. 

Oh, the happy, happy faces of the thronging children ! 
Oh, their songs of gladness ! Oh, the warm kisses of 
spontaneous, innocent, unselfish affection ! Oh, the 
free, tender touch of their open hands ! Oh, the tuneful 
tread of their marching feet ! I do not wonder that 
Pythagoras, and* Plato, and Jesus, and John, all true 
men, and that all true mothers, love, welcome, worship 
children. There can be no "kingdom of heaven" 
without these little angels of immortality ! 

Who can, who will, paint the picture of an outcast, 
vagrant, lost child? "We reformers," writes a friend 
of children, " who are mindful of what we seek, find 
none that are entirely bad. There is always to be 
found, by those who diligently search for g >od, a ray 
of moral light, or truth, or beauty, even in the most de- 
praved, revealing that link in the chain of being which 
connects the Divine Mind with the lowest, the most 
unfortunate of His children. And these poor creatures 



MOODS AND TIDES. 145 

are not to be blamed because they are vulgar, and 
licentious, and profaue — no more than because they are 
hungry, and their clothes are ragged, aud their skins 
dirty ; for good moral example and teaching could no 
more be found in their miserable attics and cellars, than 
wholesome food, and tidy garments, and pure water. 
And now, as I look at them more closely, I can see an 
expression of discontent — of strange and vacant wonder, 
as if at the present distribution of things; and their 
large wild eyes look out from the tangled meshes of 
their shadowing hair with a longing earnestness, as if, 
in the face of all experience, they had faith, yet, that 
some good — a little good — would come — even to them. 
The expression was infinitely touching ; and as I con- 
tinued gazing on the poor little creatures, my whole 
soul dissolved within me. 

" How quickly they were sensible of the interest I 
felt; for the perceptions of these wretched itinerants 
are necessarily, educated ; and while they were again 
clamorous for charity, or their sweeping fees — for they 
had been, for a moment, hushed — one of them looked 
up, with the largest, bluest, saddest eyes I ever saw, 
holding out her little hand with a silent gesture of 
entreaty. There was something so beautiful in the act, 
so gentle, so imploring, and at the same time so sweetly 
confident of help, that my heart was filled with a strange 
and pleasing wonder, and I forgot to reply to her 
demand, but stood gazing earnestly into the depths 
of those uplifted eyes. There was nothing wrong 
there. They were clear, and deep, as the living wells 
of Truth — but, oh, how sorrowful ! She returned my 
gaze by a look that seemed struggling to utter, in a 

7 



146 THE ARABULA. 

single moment, all the brokenness of that little suffer- 
ing heart; and then the lids fell with a sweet and 
modest expression, and the long fringes rested upon a 
cheek which I could see through the spatters of mud 
was pale as marble. I whispered to her, as I placed in 
her hand a shilling, asking : ' Where is your home, my 
little girl V — ' Home ' she repeated, in a voice that 
seemed the concentrated melody of sorrow, ' indeed I 
don't know !' It was the saddest voice of a child I ever 
heard ; and the saddest sight I ever saw, was the poor 
little desolate creature weeping — the tears carrying the 
mud in stripes down her pale face — and unfeeling boys, 
and ladies, too, laughing jocosely at her appearance, as 
they went by. But I knew there was a sad story 
behind those beautiful eyes." 

Another child-lover says : — " When little three-year- 
old sister lays her fair cheek against mine, and, with 
dimpled arms clasped around my neck, prattles in her 
innocent way, don't I think of the path her little feet 
must tread ? Are there any thorns to pierce them — ■ 
any pits into which she may fall ? Now I think of it, 
I must tell you of her little speeches. I think she is so 
cunning — though perhaps I am partial ; if so, pardon. 
One night last week she crept into my lap, and, ere I 
was aware of it, fell asleep. I took her up to her little 
bed, but before putting her in, I said — ' Nellie must 
not forget her little prayer.' She commenced — 

' Now I lay me down to sleep.' 

" c Dod knows the rest,' she murmured ; and the white 
lids closed over the bright eyes, and she was asleep 



MOODS AND TD3ES. 147 

"Wondrously picturesque is the harmonious grouping 
of children ! The scene is suggestive of the tented 
fields of the Summer Land, where all things prove 
Plato's saying, "Poetry comes nearer to vital truth 
than history." 

But, externally, the work slowly wore its way into 
flesh and blood ; especially when combined with the 
care and toil inseparable from the issuance of the 
Herald of Progress* The object of that publication 
was plainly expressed in its motto : u The Discovery 
and Application of Truth." The editors and conduct- 
ors of that paper proposed, in general terms, an object 
not much unlike that announced by Pope in his intro- 
duction to the inimitable Essay on Man : — 

" Let us (since life can little more supply 
Than just to look about us, and to die) 
Expatiate free o'er all this scene of mail ; 
A mighty maze ; but not without a plan ; 
A wild, where weeds and flowers promiscuous shoot, 
Or garden, tempting with forbidden fruit. 
Together let us beat this ample field, 
Try what the open, what the coverts yield ; 
The latent tracts, the giddy heights explore, 
Of all who blindly creep, or sightless soar ; 
Bye Nature's walks, shoot folly as it flies, 
And catch the manners living as they rise ; 
Laugh where we must, be candid where we can, 
But vindicate the ways of G-od to man." 

The central principle was Progress. This principle 
is the u Philosopher's Stone," which converts all metals 
into pure gold, and explains all the " ways of God to 

* The title of a weekly journal in New York, edited by the author 
three years, now suspended. 



148 THE ARABULA. 

Man." If, however, the reasonings and illustrations 
advanced by them seem to others inconclusive and 
illogical, they invited a candid examination and expres- 
sion of opinion from readers and correspondents, no 
matter how widely and painfully their convictions 
might diner from and antagonize with each other. 

They felt no fear of public opinion, and cherished no 
love for the fleeting applause of the multitude ; there- 
fore, their eyes were at all times open to every depart- 
ment of human concern, and were ready to portray any 
evil in high as in low places, and to prescribe the 
remedy, as far as it was comprehended. Being actuated 
by the principle of Progress, their faculties unfolded more 
and more by the industrious and fraternal uses they put 
them to. To help on the world's advancement toward 
peace and unity, and thereby promote all spiritual pro- 
gress, was their paramount aspiration. 



THE GREAT REBELLION. 149 



CHAPTEE XXXVI. 

THE GREAT REBELLION. 

The great rebellion had to come, because there is 
matter, and in man an infinite Perfection. The natural 
modes of the operation of that infinite Perfection are 
called " The laws of Nature." These laws operate per- 
fectly in the world of Politics, as they operate perfectly 
in the empire of Principles. The statutes and creeds 
of men are but the surface manifestations of the surface 
motives, operating through surface materials, for the 
accomplishment of surface ends ; the root of all being 
the selfish instincts, acting, with more or less glimmer- 
ings of wisdom and benevolence, through the exercise 
of the intellects of prominent men pre-eminently gifted 
with the selfish propensities and perceptions of meum et 
tuum. 

Associated and mingling with all selfish instincts, is 
what men term " Religion " — the voice of the ever- 
coming, never-come, omnipresent, indistinct, ever- visi- 
ble, never-fully-incarnated Arabula — the Spirit inmost 
to all " natural laws ;" the watchful Providence behind 
and within all events ; the omniscient Cause at the heart 
of all effects ; the holy virgin Mother of infinite Love in 
the maternal affections of all propagating and prolifica- 
ting powers; the supreme Father of Wisdom in the 
paternal forces of all centrifngating and executive organs 
and functions — called " God " by some ; by others, 



150 THE AEABTJLA. 

"Nature ;" by yet others, " Providence ;" but, under each 
and every name, it is unchangeably in human nature that 
ever-pressing consciousness of a yet higher consciousness, 
— the irrepressible intuition of a yet higher destiny than 
to live and die an everlasting death — which is generally 
termed " Religion." 

I think the wings of Arabula hovered and brooded 
upon the spirit of Theodore Parker, when he wrote : 
" In its primitive form, Religion is a mere Emotion ; it 
is nothing but a feeling ; an instinctive feeling ; at first 
vague, shadowy, dim. In its secondary stage it is also 
a Thought; the emotion has traveled from the heart 
upward to the head. It is an Idea, an abstract idea, 
the Object whereof transcends both time and space, and 
is not cognizable by any sense. But finally, in its ulti- 
mate form, it becomes likewise an Act. Thus it spreads 
over all a man's life, inward and outward, too ; it goes 
up to the tallest heights of the philosopher's speculation, 
down to the lowest deeps of human consciousness; it 
reaches to the minute details of our daily practice. 
Thus Religion wraps all our life in its own wide mantle. 
So the sun, ninety-six million miles away, comes every 
morning and folds in its warm embrace each great and 
every little thing on the round world. Religion takes 
note of the private conduct of the individual man, and 
the vast public concerns of the greatest nation and the 
whole race of mankind." 

And so, as the infinite Light taketh knowledge of " the 
concerns of a great nation," even as it does of" the private 
conduct of the individual," — because, simply, it is never 
separate from the inmost of an individual's or a nation's 
life — so, the Great Rebellion had to come ! It came as 



THE GEEAT REBELLION. 151 

agonizing pains come to a man surcharged with disease ; 
and it died, too, as inexorable death comes to close the 
eyes and draw the breath of the man who will not turn 
from his consuming sins.* 

But let us look a little more closely into detail, and 
see, by a brief survey of under-lying fundamental causes, 
the effects of a nation's transgressions. A true and gen- 
uine Democracy, which is the dream of the great West- 
ern world, is founded on Justice. Justice regards and 
rewards all men equally an d impartially. There is, in the 
eyes of Justice, a perfect harmony between endowments 
bestowed and individual responsibilities. Obligations 
are equal to powers conferred. All men are born alike ; 
not equal. All men are alike independent ; but not to 
the same extent. A full measure of "independence" 
is given and guaranteed to each; but each does not go 
to the fountain with the same measure to be filled. 
True Democracy, therefore, is as natural to a just man 
as health is natural to a harmonious man. 

But American Democracy, so far, is a sham, is based, 
nevertheless, on the beautiful dream of the idea of 
Justice. The dream recognized the right of each to 
"life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." In politi- 
cal dream-life, " all men are born free and equal." The 
true future government is to derive its just powers 
"from the consent of the governed." ISTo taxation 
without representation is another dream ; so very beau- 
tiful and dreamy is the democratic theory of American 
government and administration. 



* In a volume by the author, entitled, "Answers to Questions," the 
subject here mentioned is familiarly elucidated. 



152 THE ARABULA. 

Therefore, for generations upon generations, how has 
America violated humanity, and crushed the best hopes 
of enslaved millions ! What injustice, what aristocracy, 
what tyranny, what oppressions, have marked her 
course ! 

Democracy, when genuine, recognizes the social in- 
dividuality of each, and the political equality of each 
also ; if he can reason intelligently, is not imbecile, and 
act with a conscience. False Democracy, or that which 
really exists in the administration of either party, denies 
the manhood of a black man, rejects the political indi- 
viduality of woman, however refined and intelligent, 
and exalts the ignorant, the brutal, the swindler, and 
the drunkard, to the commanding position of " Ameri- 
can citizens," entitled to vote at elections, and to have 
a voice in the enactment of laws for the government of 
sober, docile, intelligent Africans, and also our white 
mothers and daughters, who are equal, often superior, 
to the white fathers, sons, and brothers of the world. 

This crime, this inherent inconsistency, which has 
been continued from the first day of American inde- 
pendence (?) to this hour, had grown into mighty pro- 
portions, and merited a punishment of equal magnitude, 
and this punishment offended Justice was rapidly con- 
centrating upon the Government and the people. 

Rebellion is a disease incidental to an evil social con- 
dition, brought about by political inequality and oppres- 
sive ibrms of injustice. The obscene, the fiendish, the 
burning and murdering riots which, in 1863, disgraced 
American civilization in New York, were natural out- 
bursts of wrongs and oppressions long pent up. Idle- 
ness, intemperance, false democracies, political chica- 



THE GREAT REBELLION. 153 

neries — all selfish imps, broke loose with the first excuse 
and opportunity. The Government, notwithstanding its 
beautiful professions and published dreams, had long 
degraded the honest, industrious, modest, docile black 
men — had denied to them the " right " of being repre- 
sented — had, instead, given prominence to selfish, ig- 
norant, and dishonest characters (because their skins 
were white), and, as a sequence, what more natural than 
the development of a murderous Rebellion ? 

Wise people, who carry the light of Arabula in their 
hearts, do not generate discords. Injustice does not, 
because it cannot, flow from equilibriums. Anarchy 
is the opposite of order. Rebellion, which is not revo- 
lution, is the antagonism of Justice. If, therefore, there 
be discords, injustice, discontent, and rowdyisms in 
society, the causes may be traced to unwise (or selfish) 
statesmanship — to loss of equilibriums, a consequent 
persecuting fight, between labor and capital — and, in a 
word, to injustice in the workings of the political 
mechanism, however beautiful the dream of its original 
inventor, and however high-minded his immediate heirs 
and administrators. 

When a Government is intrusted with an unjust 
power, another selfish party is immediately organized to 
get hold of it, and, as a counteracting movement, an 
opposition party is engendered, which, without design- 
ing it, acts conservatively and beneficially by prevent- 
ing the exclusive use of the power. Thus, happily, 
there can be no perpetual monopoly in politics on this 
Continent. 

The unjust power in American government was, and 
still is, exhibited in the enslavement of the innocent, in 

5* 



154: THE ARABULA. 

the political rejection of woman's individuality, in the 
establishment of bad institutions, and in the enactment 
of unjust laws, by which the best are kept practically 
beneath the selfish masculines who swarm and wallow 
about the grog-holes of great cities. 

Party strifes, guided by the selfish intellects of public 
men, result in elections by which the unjust power 
changes hands. Now one sect in politics is in power, and 
now another — the so-called " Democrats " for a term of 
'years, next the so-called " Republicans ;" still the 
" unjust power " remains, and the imps of Selfishness 
continue to get offices. So long as there remains a 
single " unjust power " in government, so long will 
there be party strifes, corruption, injustice, and rebel- 
lious developments in the social body. 

Self-government in the individual is possible only in 
that state of mind which rests upon Justice — upon the 
unselfish Light of eternal Love and Wisdom. The 
same is true of a nation. All is arbitrary and discord, 
until the absolute requirements of Justice are fulfilled. 
" Careless seems the great avenger ;" but history's pages 
show, that 

" Ever the truth comes uppermost 
And ever is Justice done." 

Selfish developments will not cease till government 
is based upon Justice — to black as well as to white — to 
woman and to man alike— providing for the largest 
growth of freedom in the individual. Property ques- 
tions, and the inseparable relations of Capital to Labor, 
will all be gradually answered by, and adjusted to " the 
laws of JN at lire " — after the Government is established. 



THE GREAT REBELLION. 155 

upon the largest Liberty, which is the only true Democ- 
racy. Local injustice, special corruptions, isolated 
evils, social inequalities, party antagonisms, will vanish 
under the rays of a Government founded on righteous- 
ness. O that the American Continent might unfold 
the sublime realities of its glorious dream ! The resist- 
ance of the State to injustice, to the Rebellion, must be 
carried forward to the destruction of selfish conditions — 
the worst form of which is the slaveholding power — for 
it works to establish a terrible despotism upon the ruins 
of human liberty ! 



156 THE ARABULA. 



OHAPTEE XXXVII. 

A MEMORABLE VISION". 

There was, in the early stages of the Great Bebel- 
lion, a strange, prophetic, fearful, mystical, memorable 
day, never to be effaced from the history of my inner- 
life; but, rather, always to be remembered, and hal- 
lowed, and reverenced, as marking the period of a vast 
movement among higher powers in behalf of the earth's 
inhabitants. 

In the morning of that day (the first "Tuesday in 
November, 1861), I felt peculiarly unfit for either think- 
ing or writing, notwithstanding the large packages of 
letters, and the numerous contributions for our Journal, 
which demanded immediate attention and editorial 
labor. There was a complete solstice in my mental 
machinery. Not a thought-wheel would turn that 
morning. Being thus disqualified for study and labor 
at the desk, and just then having " nothing to do " 
about the house or in the garden, I went motivelessly, 
listlessly, forth for a ramble — " anywhere, anywhere," 
on the solid earth beneath the autumnal sky. 

My favorite resort was, and is, away among the hilly 
slopes and mountain-paths of Llewellyn Park,* one 

* This Park was conceived by a public-spirited gentleman of Orange, 
N. J., Llewellyn S. Haskell, Esq., who has by industry, and by faithful love 
to forest, flower, and mountain, opened up nine miles of shaded paths and 
carriage-ways, attracted New Yorkers to build mansions therein, and 
influenced the whole township to become a beautiful rural city. 



A MEMORABLE VISION. 157 

mile west of our home in the beautiful village. From 
the sheer force of attraction and habit, one would 
naturally think, my steps would have involuntarily 
turned thither ; but, unthinking and objectless still, 
and contrary to the routine of custom in rambling, 
I went through the village eastward, in the direction 
of Newark, following the railroad as far as the Bloom- 
field Station, and there took the side-path leading 
toward a grove of almost leafless trees. 

At length observing a beautiful rock near the corner 
of an open field, I hastened to its side, and rested 
tranquilly for many minutes. Those moments were 
filled to the brim with a peculiar happiness. Strains of 
distant bands of music seemed to touch the very fibers 
of the brain, thrilling each organ with thoughts and 
sensations of melody — more delicate and enchanting 
than any emotions ever awakened by the music of 
earth. 

The reader will not require me to apologize for the, 
length and particularity of these prefatory remarks, 
inasmuch as, without them, no one could conceive why 
the day to which I have alluded made an impression 
so memorable and prophetic. If I had been long 
laboring in mind to solve the problem of the war with 
the Great Rebellion then going on, or if I had been 
considerably anxious to get at the ultimates of the 
recent naval expeditions, the following vision might be 
in part accounted for on common causes, like dreams 
and visions of the night, after a day of intense mental 
activity, anxiety, or suspense. The case with me was 
exactly the reverse. I had had no great anxiety or 
curiosity about the operations of the army, nor any 



158 THE AEABTJLA. 

sleepless hours over the results likely to flow from the 
bosom of Destiny, during the terrific struggles and 
exceedingly sorrowful experiences of the people, in 
their patriotic efforts to preserve the present form of 
government. 

Naturally enough, when the music reached the outer 
ear, stirring the waters of my inner life to wavelets of 
corresponding harmony, I turned my eyes in all direc- 
tions, looking over the adjoining fields, to discover the 
authors of such exquisite strains. Language will not 
convey any just conception of that music, which was 
wafted over the earth like the melodious breathings of 
celestial seas. No earthly compositions exactly resemble 
any of the combinations of sounds that floated dreamily, 
musically, sacredly, through the upper air; and yet 
there was, now and then, a strain that reminded me of 
certain national hymns, and of choice fragments of 
operas, which I have had the happiness to hear from 
human lips and instruments. There was a wonderful 
blending of vocal with instrumental sounds. I thought 
of earthly minstrels whom I had heard ; of anthemnal 
music from the sweet singers of cathedrals and church 
choirs ; of bands of music in the street, concerting with 
the sustaining voices of a singing multitude ; but all 
such thoughts were soon swallowed by the incom- 
parable melody which pulsated and waved through the 
heavens. The delicious sensations that bridge over 
from physical consciousness to spirit life, crept steal- 
thily, dreamily, musically, over my individuality ; and, 
as thousands of times before, the curtains of the interior 
world were rolled up, disclosing a scene of beauty and 
grandeur far beyond the power of words to picture. It 



A MEMORABLE VISION. 159 

would require the pen of a "ready writer," and the 
descriptive powers of a Shakspeare, to convey to man- 
kind the realities of that Yision. 

Facing the east, and looking with spirit eyes into the 
upper immensity, I beheld an ocean filled with islands. 
They arose one above another, and between each other, 
as far as clairvoyant sight could reach, apparently 
beyond the path of the planet Saturn, millions upon 
billions of leagues away into space, until lost in the 
mystical and unexplored depths of infinitude. The 
islands were barren of vegetation — dark, rough, rocky, 
desolate — with not so much as one bird of night to 
redeem the dreary solitude. The waves of the ocean 
gently kissed their craggy lips, and gave forth a musical 
sound as of many waters laving the rocky sides of a 
distant shore. But the music before heard was heard 
no more. A sad sound of low, wailing, mournful 
melody went up from the feet of those desolate isles, 
and died away with innumerable echoes, or was lost 
amid the dreary distances and empty spaces of the 
immensity. " Alps on Alps " arose before my vision, 
and I began very earnestly to ask for interpretation, or 
else a change of scene. * * * * 

Months seemed to depart — oh, how long I waited — 
ere the scene was changed. During all those weary 
weeks I suffered intensely, in body and in soul, dying 
daily, and being resurrected again with the sound of 
mournful music vibrating through ear and brain, until 
the clouds, and isles, and oceans melted away into 
chaos, and the heavenly music first heard again filled 
the air and world. 

The heavens opened all the way across from the 



160 THE ARABTTLA. 

north to the south, in the form of a vast rainbow, 
spanning the entire eastern section of the sky, the 
clouds sailing rapidly behind each other, and floating 
off in mountainous masses toward the northwest and 
the southwest, until the open buena-vista to the east, 
beneath the over-arching rainbow, was renovated and 
gorgeously arranged for the exhibition of some new 
scene. Meanwhile the whole heavens were filled with 
the sounds of that first most marvelous music, emana- 
ting from performers and vocalists not yet visible to the 
eyes of the spirit, and every preparation was made for a 
stupendous development. 

Behold ! In the dim distance, beneath the many- 
colored archway, emerging from the remote infinity, 
was visible what seemed to be the shining vanguard of 
a mighty army, with all the precision of military order, 
keeping step to the sound of the indescribable music : 
onward came the resplendent host. The golden light 
of an unseen sun shone on their armor, and upon their 
beautiful faces and symmetrical forms, producing an 
effect the most inexpressibly enchanting and bewilder- 
ing to the beholder. As the celestial army drew nearer, 
it was easy to discern all the system and discipline of 
an army — generals, colonels, captains, lieutenants, 
and subordinate officers — at the head of brigades, bat- 
talions, regiments, companies — away, far away, as 
remote as the eye could trace the divisions and persons. 
And as the hosts marched nearer still, the features 
of many faces became distinct enough to recognize, and 
lo ! / beheld many whom I knew well in private life, 
and renowned characters also, with celestial mold and 
military manners — Ellsworth, Winthrop, Lyon, Baker, 



A MEMORABLE VISION. 161 

and others, who were yet in this world,* all at the head 
of immense battalions, obedient to the sublimity of 
a divine impulse, marching above the world of men to 
encounter foes yet unseen in the wilds of mind and 
matter. 

It seemed to me that hours were consumed in march- 
ing from the encampments of an unexplored infinity to 
the front, beneath the gorgeous archway of many colors. 
Arrived at the foreground, the advance guard separated 
in equal numbers, and marched harmoniously to the 
right and left of the rainbow, halting at each extreme of 
the arch. The central column continued its march, in 
time with the music, and as they approached, the faces 
of other acquaintances shone with the radiance of en- 
thusiasm. 

All this seemed to occur in the upper heavens, cen- 
trally over the Atlantic Ocean. As the army drew 
near the base line of the grand arch, the white-clad 
soldiers, with armor unspotted, and their two-edged 
swords unnotched by crime, divided into four separate 
and independent columns or armies, and stepped out 
into tlxe atmosphere over the continent of America. 
One of these armies slowly marched over a portion of 
Connecticut, over a part of the State of New York, and 
as it wended its way toward the extreme Northwest, 
it seemed to take in only a part of Ohio and Indiana, 
all of Michigan, and a part of Illinois, Wisconsin, and 
Iowa, and reached all the way to the Pacific shore. 
The second of the four armies marched directly west, 

* It is remarkable that all distinguished Generals and prominent mili- 
tary men seen in this vision, though living at the time, either died or 
were* killed in battle during the war. 



162 THE AEABULA. 

until it reached Illinois Eiver; it then turned south- 
west, crossed Missouri and Kansas, and disappeared far 
over the mountains of California. The third army 
marched directly north, separated E~ew England from. 
New York and New Jersey, and disappeared in the 
clouds over Canada. The fourth division of the mighty 
host, obedient to its commanders, who were then recog- 
nized generals in the Southern army, marched to the 
South, separated Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, 
Yirginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee from more Southern 
States, and disappeared in the clouds over the land of 
Mexico. 

Still the invisible bands and choristers continued to 
pour music upon the scene. When the different armies 
had disappeared, there suddenly formed beneath the 
arch a regiment of white-clad soldiers, each with a deep 
blue sash about his waist, and each in his left hand 
carrying a book, and in his right hand a small gold 
hammer of exquisite workmanship. These were ven- 
erable men, beautiful in their faces, exceedingly intelli- 
gent and refined — their uncovered heads and snow- 
white brows radiant with light. The music sounded 
grander than before, and new strains of inexpressible 
sweetness filled the whole temple of the heavens as 
these venerable soldiers commenced their march toward 
Washington. 

They reached the capital of the country while Con- 
gress was in session, and halted in the air just above 
the palatial edifice. At a word of command, each man 
raised his strong right arm, hammer in hand, and with 
the quickness of lightning each hammer fell upon the 
vast structure, which, as if rent by an earthquake, 



k MEMORABLE VISION. 163 

trembled, reeled, crumbled, and was scattered into 
countless fragments over the soil ! A cloud of dust 
filled the air, and there were some faint sounds of 
suffering and shouts for help. But rapidly the dust 
departed on the winds, and the place where the capitol 
stood was grassy, and looked like the land of the Silent. 

It was suddenly changed into a burial-place, or 
cemetery, of great solitude and quiet beauty. Amid 
the trees and flowering shrubs which ornamented the 
grassy slopes, I beheld the tombs of all the Senators 
and Representatives who had assembled in the capitol. 

Their names were distinctly carved on the little 
marble tombs that covered the sacred dust beneath. 

Meanwhile, above, in the air, calmly stood the ven- 
erable soldiers who had wrought all these wonderful 
changes. They seemed to bend down over the grave 
of each Congressman with beaming countenances. 
While stooping thus, each, at a word of command, 
lifted his book and dropped it upon a grave. Each 
buried politician was thus provided with a book from 
the sky. Again the hammer of each soldier was up- 
lifted high in air, and simultaneously each gravestone 
was struck as by lightning, when lo ! the grass opened 
in wide folds, and each Senator and Representative, 
dressed in white, with pale face and uncovered head, 
walked forth from his tomb, armed with a book in his 
left hand and a golden hammer in his right. 

The whole heavens were again filled with music, and 
a sound of rejoicing came up from the surrounding 
country ; while distant people seemed to express great 
consternation, and trembled with fear. A great thun- 
der-storm now arose in the east. It rolled violently 



164 THE AEABULA. 

through the rainbowed archway, which was thus effaced 
from the sky. The storm-cloud seemed to be filled with 
armed soldiers from other countries. They sped onward, 
amid peals of thunder, over New York, and rolled 
toward Washington. Instantly, in the West, the Cap- 
itol became visible. The seats were all filled with the 
newly-arisen men, each with a book and a hammer, 
and the storm passed over the land like a whirlwind, 
terrifying the people, destroying their crops and cattle, 
but without injuring the New Capitol, or disturbing 
the Resurrected Men. 

Suddenly all the music ceased, and there was nothing 
more exhibited. And the Yision was thus terminated, 
even before one question could be asked as to interpre- 
tation, and immediately I returned to the ordinary state. 
The first impression was, that I had been from home 
several months, lost in a journey of observation and 
enchantment ; but, on reaching my study, I found that 
only three hours of life had passed in this manner. 

That there is a world of prophetic meaning in the 
foregoing I cannot doubt; and that something more 
will be yet given, by way of interpretation, I fully 
believe. 



A NAME m THE SKY. 165 



CHAPTEE XXXYIIL 

A NAME IN THE SKY. 

For many years I had been urged to secure the 
establishment and publication of a weekly journal or 
magazine, devoted to the exposition and advocacy of 
the Facts, Ideas, and Principles of Harmonial Phi- 
losophy. There seemed to be a need of, if there was not 
a want for, a popular form of disseminating knowledge 
concerning the new facts and inspirations. Speculation 
of Sensation and Logic had apparently reached its 
highest triumphs in Hegel, Kant, Fichte, Schelling, 
Spinosa, Feuerbach, and Schiller, in Germany ; and 
the profoundest penetration to the interior essence of 
history, ideas, and things, with the largest magnitudes 
of scientific and philanthropic Thought, had been 
achieved by Comte, Cousin, Penan, Colenso, Hugo, 
and Emerson; so that, unless the limitations of sense 
and the semi-intuitive speculations of high-cultured 
intellects could be surpassed and assisted by the tele- 
scopic powers of independent clairvoyants, and by the 
microscopes of spirit-mediums, it seemed that the acme 
of all divine knowledge had been reached, and man 
could attain to nothing positive in the realm of Spirit. 

With this view many friends urged me " to start a 
paper." I agreed with them in the main. But steadily 
did I decline taking the " editorial chair," and yet more 
dreaded assuming any "business responsibility." All 



166 THE ARABTTLA. 

my feelings and undefined impressions were opposed to 
the proposition, and for honest personal reasons which I 
need not mention. Eeaders of the " Magic Staff" 45 ' 
will recall " the shadows " visible to my mother's eyes 
whenever "something was going to happen." Al- 
though, whenever the plan of publishing a paper was 
broached, the way was always light, yet a dark shadow 
hovered in my front whenever it was urged that I 
should take the chief position. 

" Whence the strange inborn sense of coming ill, 
That of times whispers to the haunted breast, 
In a low tone that naught can drown or still, 
Midst feast and melodies a secret guest ? 
Whence doth that murmur wake, that shadow fall ? 
Why shakes the spirit thus? 'tis mystery all 1" 

Let the reader for a moment step into the " Confes- 
sional." I ask. Did you never, guided by the plausi- 
ble cogitations and logical conclusions of your intel- 
lect, go counter to the admonitions of the " low, sweet 
voice " of a light more interior f And were you not, 
in every such case, beset with difficulties, crippled, and 
ultimately defeated? Your reply, I know, will be in 
accordance with your ideas of what constitutes " suc- 
cess." But, with an idea that there is no success in 
any thing that does not promote the highest ends of 
spiritual development in yourself and in others, you 
will answer — "I was never successful, either in business 
or in any other interest, when, following my intellect, I 
went counter to the inward monitor." 

Again and again I invoked the suggestive hints of 
angel friends. u O, help me to understand the signifi- 

* The title of the Author's Autobiography. 



A NAME IX THE SKY. 167 

cance of 'the shadow.' Wliy cannot I see my way 
clearly ? 0, aid me to discern the right ; for^ seeing, 
ye know that I will pursue it." 

Instead of voices from the Summer Land, there rushed 
into my mind the reply of Carlyle, when asked by a 
student what course of reading he thought best to make 
him a man : — " It is not by books chiefly that a man 
becomes in all points a man. Study to do whatsoever 
thing in your actual situation, then and now, you find 
either expressly or tacitly laid down to your charge — 
that is, stand to your post ; stand to it like a true 
soldier." 

On this principle I resolved to act in the work pro- 
posed, and thus I accepted all that followed. But first, 
what name f Of all funny things, the funniest, as well 
as the most perplexing, is hunting up a suitable title for 
a new paper, or magazine ! There were at least six 
" beautiful, blue-eyed, laughing babies " in the neigh- 
borhood beautifully named before we could begin to 
feel satisfied with captions suggested for the journal. 
One suggested "The Plain Truth." The other ob- 
jected, because there was somewhere published a paper 
called " The Plain Dealer" which did not always tell 
the " plain truth." "We want something new — some- 
thing taking" said a worldward - looking speaker. 
Call it the " Spirit's Advocate " — or, the " Messenger 
of Light " — or, the " Standard Bearer" — or, the u Spir- 
itual Keformer " — or, but I need not multiply sugges- 
tions. The name that was finally accepted appeared 
to the writer, in all the colors of the rainbow arching 
the sky, revealing far more of beauty than promise. 
Title fixed, an announcement of the forthcoming " Her- 



168 THE ARABULA. 

old of Progress " was made public by suitable adver- 
tisements. All the time, interiorly, feeling a painful 
reluctance. Mentioning this feeling to a gentleman of 
education and experience, he remarked : " Doubtless, 
you feel embarrassed because the position is novel to 
you. Go ahead ; you are to have, you know, talented 
editorial associates." And now, added to Carlyle's 
wholesome advice, I remembered a maxim of the old 
Levitical Law : " That which is gone out of the lips, 
thou shalt Iteejp and perform" Yes, the advertisements 
had gone forth, subscriptions were rapidly coming in from 
beloved friends, and I said (yet all the time irresolute), 
" It's too late to back out now ; I am the last man to 
keep the word of promise to their ear, but break it to 
their hope." And so, with not a dollar of stock paid 
in, out of thousands that were supposed unfailingly 
pledged to the enterprise, when it should start, the 
little ship was prematurely launched upon the troubled 
waters, in 1860, while the business of the country was 
still struggling to overcome " the Panic of '57," and 
just when the Government and popular politics were 
afflicted with the approaching shadows of the Great 
Rebellion. 



AIMS AND EFFORTS. 169 



CHAPTER XXXIX. 

AIMS AND EFFORTS. 

The birth and objective appearance of the paper had 
been postponed from time to time, because of the exist- 
ence, or probable development, of certain well-con- 
ducted periodicals; each dedicated, more or less dis- 
tinctly and positively, to the elucidation and inculcation 
of those all -comprehensive truths which we cherish and 
profoundly reverence. 

But we thought " the time " had now come for the 
establishment of a journal wherein the facts and prin- 
ciples of " Progress " might be justly presented, irre- 
spective of the social, political, or religious prejudices 
that everywhere exist in and sway society. To meet 
the present needs (not to say " wants ") of the world, a 
reform publication should not only be cosmopolitan in 
character, but it should be absolutely loyal to the 
demands of progressive Truth, and not afraid to attack 
whatever is proved to be evil in time-honored, systems 
and institutions. It should aim at a position of equal 
altitude to that exalted standard of social, philosophical, 
and spiritual progress, which advanced and enlightened 
minds have everywhere erected. Instead of pandering 
to, or reflecting the popular sentiment merely, and seek- 
ing, from selfish desires for success, to harmonize with pre- 
vailing modes of thought and feeling — instead, it should 



170 THE ARA.BTTLA. 

strive to educate the world out of its multiform errors 
and unrighteousness. Any magazine or journal which 
is pledged to advocate the interests of particular sects or 
parties, or which, because lacking something, either in 
purse or in principle, attempts to maintain positions 
of amiable neutrality on questions of great moment to 
all mankind, is a publication which travels and per- 
forms its labors far behind the inherent needs and aspi- 
rations of the world. 

On the other hand, a periodical which perpetually 
harps upon and exaggerates, beyond its intrinsic impor- 
tance, any one particular branch of progress and reform, 
while other branches of equal magnitnde and moment 
(called by such persons " side issues ") are either wholly 
overlooked or greatly underrated, fails in a just percep- 
tion of the unity and sacredness of all truth ; and 
hence the eternal Truth cannot impress her heavenly 
image and likeness on the world's great heart through 
the columns of such a periodical. It seems to us that 
there is demanded of the Press — that mighty agent of 
influence upon the bosom of the "tide in the affairs of 
men " — a mission which is as yet barely prefigured — a 
work impartially grand, world-wide, and universally 
redemptive. 

To such a mission, we undertook to promise, the new 
journal would be sacredly and earnestly devoted. 

But all work of this kind, like the principle of elec- 
tricity, presents a negative and a positive side. To 
detect and expose error and superstition ; to proclaim 
against the existence of moral wrongs and wretched- 
ness ; to paint and portray in vivid colors the miseries 
of the ignorant, degraded, and down-trodden — is only 



AIMS AND EFFORTS. 171 

the negative pole of the true reformer's mission ; his 
positive and self-rewarding work is seen in the discovery 
and application, and strenuous inculcation, of those 
gracious Truths and essential Reforms which, strike at 
the minutest rootlets of evil within the soil of sects, sys- 
tems, institutions, and individual life. 

Behold, O, ye men of the world ! The holy, har- 
monious " light " of another sphere lias descended and 
diffused its immortal radiance upon this ! Oh, how 
true it is that only those who " have eyes " singled to 
Truth can discern it ; and none comprehend save those 
attentive ones who have '' the heart to understand." 
Yet thousands of human minds, in consequence of that 
heavenly ''light," have arisen, as it were, from the 
dark-age sepulcher of ignorance and despair. Inspired 
with a divine courage, and appreciating, to some extent, 
the intrinsic dignity of individual existence, they have 
thrown off every closr and chain with which theological 
superstition had fettered them. Such emancipated 
intellects freely and fearlessly thiuk and propound 
questions upon almost all thinkable subjects. In the 
spontaneous freedom of their newly-awakened aspira- 
tions, and in the yet unsystematized exercises of their 
so recently unshackled reason, not a little extravagance 
and extremism are manifested. These intellects, how- 
ever atheistic they may seem, are nevertheless the real 
friends of humanity. They ask important religious 
questions — sometimes without much reverence for 
either the problem or the solver of its mysteries ; but, 
notwithstanding, they are stout and stubborn in their 
determination to have all sides investigated. " Give 
the facts to the world !" they exclaim; " Let each man's 



172 TIIE AEABULA. 

reason first see the facts, and then he may candidly 
render the verdict." 

This unpopular, unsectarian, important, and impartial 
task of discovering and justly reporting Truths in all 
possible directions, I had thoughtfully, reluctantly, yet 
deliberately assumed. The many and weighty respon- 
sibilities incident to such a position I also assumed, 
and resolved to deserve the possession of both light and 
strength to promote the objects at which all persons 
co-operating would aim their efforts. 

And it was furthermore declared that the conductors of 
the journal had at heart greater aims than the foregoing 
— in harmony, as they fully believed, with the desires 
and aspirations and labors of all the good and true of 
every age and denomination — first, the harmonization of 
the Individual; secondly, the harmonization of human 
Society. For the unfolding of these blessings they 
would unceasingly pray and untiringly labor. But 
they frankly differed widely from the convictions of 
sectarians and politicians, regarding the ?neans of 
obtaining these sublime results. If it were not so — if 
our convictions and inspirations had flowed into the 
popular form — the journal would not have been pro- 
posed. But we held, and still hold, that the develop- 
ment and establishment of the kingdom or government 
of heaven, all over the globe on which we live, is pos- 
sible only by and through man's spiritual interior — the 
elevation and harmonization of all the faculties and 

AFFECTIONS OF THE INDIVIDUAL. 

Realizing that mankind's physical and spiritual needs 
{not their "wants," remember) are identical with the 
ample supplies in Nature's bosom, and appreciating 



AIMS AND EFFORTS. 173 

that the beautiful laws of the universe are the un- 
changeable thoughts of the Eternal Intelligence, and 
believing that " true religion " consists in reverencing 
and harmonizing with the Divine Will — which is perpetu- 
ally flowing forth through all spheres, revealing itself to 
human reason only in, and by means of impersonal 
Ideas and the fixed laws of Nature — so perceiving, and so 
believing, we promised to endeavor to live and to work 
out the true life on earth, and from week to week to 
instruct and encourage our fellow-men to believe, 
think, and do likewise. 



174 THE AHABULA. 



CHAPTEK XL. 

THE PICTURE IN OTHER, EYES. 

It is always beneficial to take lessons in war from 
candid, intelligent opponents ; for such, in most 
cases, are better helps to progress than hosts of indiffer- 
ent soldiers in the rear of your army. . " It seems a 
very easy thing," says a writer, " to look at both sides 
of any question, and yet, practically, nothing has been 
found to be more difficult, in respect to all matters of 
importance; and even when you get over this difficulty, 
it is no easy matter to acknowledge what you really see 
on both sides. In the case of the lawyer pleading a 
cause, it is his duty, or at least his business, to conceal 
what he sees on one side. He is like the moon with 
the earth — he always shows one side to the Bench ; the 
other side he keeps out of sight. And the lawyer is 
merely like the rest of the world in this respect, only 
with him it is more professional. He acknowledges it ; 
and allows that he cannot afford to be candid ; he must 
plead for his client. If you belong to a party, or a 
sect, you must do the same ; you are witness of it, not 
judges of it ; and if in a mere mood of indifference you 
fall into controversy at a dinner-table, it seems so natu- 
ral to take one side or other, that you do it as a matter 
of course, and plead as if you were a professional law- 
yer pleading before a bench of judges, hiding what you 



THE PICTURE IN OTHER EYES. 175 

think will weaken your argument, and adducing what 
you think will gain the case." 

One day I chanced to meet in the street an acquaint- 
ance, a kind-hearted, sensible, thorough-going New 
York business man, who, at the same time, had a 
decided taste for liberal ideas and progressive literature. 
I ventured to ask his opinion of our publication (the 
paper), for I knew that he read it ; or, rather, " looked 
it over," every week, while the Choir was singing at 
Dodworth's Hall. 

" Oh, pretty well," he replied, looking at the moment 
perfectly lukewarm, and yawning, too, as much as to 
say — " It's a great bore, though." But he knew that I 
was a friend of " free- thought and free-expression," and 
so added : 

" I have, however, one criticism to make on it. 
There is not enough Spiritualism in it. The people 
want facts, facts, facts — well-authenticated/V^s." 

" Yes," I replied. " We have a department in our 
columns containing every week some account of ' spiri- 
tual manifestations.' " 

" True, very true ; but those prosy reformatory articles 
by correspondents, remind me of the description I once 
read of a Fourth of July celebration : ' The procession 
was very fine, and nearly two miles in length, as was 
also the prayer of Rev. Dr. Perry, the chaplain.' " 

" But," I responded, " we promised free columns to 
all well- written articles on any important question or 
progressive subject." 

" "Well, what of that f My judgment is, you can't 
publish such a paper much longer. You can't afford 
to keep your columns open to political controversies, 



176 THE AKABULA. 

and to other topics not connected with Spiritualism. 
Why, your paper is scarcely any better than a reform 
paper, a woman's rights paper, an infidel paper, giving 
very few well-authenticated facts in Spiritualism. You 
must show more of your own side. Print more facts, 
more facts — that's what the people want, facts." 



AN ANGEL EST THE HOUSE. 177 



CHAPTEE XLI. 



AN ANGEL IN THE HOUSE. 



Thomas Fuller said, " God sends His servants to 
bed when they have done their work." The shadows 
thickened over my head and all around me. No man 
ever spoke truer than the criticising merchant : " You 
can't publish such a paper much longer." Health 
failed, and I prayed, " Oh, Mother, Oh, Father, take 
my weary and wounded feet from this weed-tangled 
and stony field. The world's winds shiver and chill ; 
the waters are bitter, and my thirst is not quenched." 

~No prayer was ever more promptly or thoroughly 
answered. True thought is devotion, and true devotion 
is thought. " Is not prayer also a study of truth," asks 
Emerson ; " a sally of the soul into the unfound Infinite % 
No man ever prayed heartily without learning some- 
thing. But when a faithful thinker, resolute to detach 
every object from personal relations, and see it in the 
light of thought, shall, at the same time, kindle science 
with the fire of the holiest affections, then will God go 
forth anew into the creation." 

Through all these years, and through all the toils and 
trials and joys of these years, there walked by my side, 
with patient, self-poised, and faithful step, the com- 
jjanion of my heart ! Fed by the crystal fountains of 
supernal affection ; true as the stars that in heaven 
shine; gentle in feeling as the breath of song; with 
8* 



178 THE ARABTTLA. 

divine sympathy in her eyes for needful child, or 
woman, or man ; a truthful thinker, with a holy love 
for truth — she steadily performed her part, cheerfully, 
bravely, buoyantly, as angels labor in the immortal 
Lands of Love. 

Happy the man, and happy the woman, who is blessed 
with a spirit Mate ! To every loving one, uncompan- 
ionated, life is cold and dark. Sadly roams and moans the 
unloved soul. But like an angel of beauty seen through 
the gloaming, into which the soul is roaming, cometh the 
true adorer and savior of the longing heart. Whether 
waking, whether sleeping, sacredly the heart is keeping 
its boundless love for its deathless lover ; and with earliest 
thought, with latest prayer, the resting spirit blesses, and 
presses to its bosom, the holy fellow-angel of its im- 
mortal life. 

The shadows of evening came damply upon my 
weary form. Disease invaded the citadel of life. The 
sun of eternal light did not shine ; only the white moon 
silvered my path down the valley. " Thou shalt rest 
and slumber in thy home," said Mary ; " a bed is pre- 
pared for thee more soft than clouds." And thenceforth, 
in the morning as at evening, in our room, for many 
months, the healing hands of the " Angel of the House " 
were magnetically bringing back to my form the breath 
of life. Whether quietly resting at home, whether 
guiding the steps of grouped children in the great city, 

Note. — The readers of the "Magic Staff" will be rejoiced to learn 
that Time, who heals all wounds, brought to Mary her beloved children, 
Faonie and Charlie ; they came two years ago, and came to stay ; they 
have grown up healthy, well-educated, industrious, harmonious, and 
full believers in the gospel of Progression. 



AN ANGEL IN THE HOUSE. 179 

whether writing or laboring, in poverty as in abundance, 
the same sweet soul, like the atmosphere of many flowers, 
filled all parts of the house with affection. 

During this period, which embraces the varied ex- 
periences set forth in these chapters, she wrote many 
beautiful things ; one of them, " The Mountain Path," 
which is biography as well as poetry, I must bequeath 
to the reader : — 

Shadows crept along the valley, sunshine played upon the green. 
On the boughs the leaflets parted, showing flecks of cloud between ; 
Dimpling brooklets floated onward where the wandering breezes sigh, 
Flowerets breathed their sweet-toned welcome to the children passing by. 

In that valley, shadow-haunted, listening to the water's chime, 
Listening to the many whispers, telling of a fadeless clime, 
Suddenly my soul was lifted as on amber-tmted wings, 
And my heart was filled with sunlight, such as joy supernal brings. 

For a voice broke on the stillness, full of tenderness and truth, 
Breathing words my spirit pined for in the years of blighted youth, 
Calling me to leave the valley and the mists that roll below — 
Leave the dim, sequestered arbors, and the water's plaintive flow. 

Eyes there were that beamed upon me, through the pale and pensive 

light, 
Earnest, loveful, calm, and holy, like the stars upon the night ; 
And a voice of sweeter music than the song of bird or tree, 
Whispered: " Darling, leave the valley, climb the mountain-top with me." 

Silently we sought the pathway Nature's loving hand had wrought ; 
Sweetly fond the gentle tokens by her forest-minstrels brought; 
Glad and gay and hushed and tender were the notes she chanted there, 
And the mountain path was sacred as a holy shrine of prayer. 

Hand in hand we hasted onward, where the eagle led the way, 
Scaled the grand and glorious summit, resting in the lap of day, 
Stood upon the moss-grown carpet, stood where man has seldom trod, 
And, with reverent brows uncovered, in that hour we worshiped God. 



180 THE ARABULA. 



CHAPTEE XLII. 

SPECIAL PROVIDENCES AND OBITUARIES. 

Communion of Spirit with Spirit, or deep answering 
unto deep, is the ultimate fact of consciousness. By the 
senses, man comes in contact with the things of sense ; 
by the reasoning processes, man comes in contact with 
the reasonable processes of Nature ; and by Intuition, 
man's whole nature comes in contact with the Absolute 
and Essential, where he rests tranquilly on the bosom 
of Love and Wisdom. 

The special providences and facts of guardianship, 
which occur in the realm of sense, now from intelligent 
causes which the senses cannot detect. It is my experi- 
ence that, while faithfully engaged in life's serious 
labors and difficulties, there are invisible hands ever 
stretched forth to aid one's will in ordering and sub- 
duing outer circumstances, and in tempering one's 
petty annoyances ; so that harmony may stream, as 
music flows from an JEolian lyre, through the ten thou- 
sand cords of present terrestrial life. Prayer and its 
fulfillment, desire and its gratification, want and its 
supply, interior aspiration and beautiful communion, 
like the interlaced relations and fixed equilibriums of 
cause and effect, go hand in hand throughout the life 
and government of the Infinite Eeason. Blessed is that 
spirit, whether in earth or in heaven, who can inter- 
change emotions and exchange thoughts and benefits 



SPECIAL PROVIDENCES AND OBITUARIES. 181 

with the Spirit of all ideas, principles, essences, laws, 
persons. 

To come to personal relations — to sense, leaving the 
realm of commnnion — my testimony, based on numer- 
ous experiences, is : That, by some agency, not always 
cognizable by the senses, when one is doing, or is trying 
to do, his best, friends or strangers will be influenced 
to come with open hands to help lift the load. Many 
times, when weary waiting in the valley for the coming 
light, or when, through the heavily shrouded morning, 
we were trying to reach the hills of Beulah, a letter 
would come, or an almost-forgotten acquaintance of 
former years would ring the door-bell, when lo ! the, aid 
which we that very day pressingly needed had arrived ! 
A shower of plenteous blessings falls just in time to save 
the soul from the death-stings of petty cares, loss of 
credit, empty larder, broken health, and killing despair. 
Oh, the entrancing goodness of hearts beating in the 
music-bosom of the Summer Land ! 

But, believe me, I do not attribute all manifestations 
of human kindness to interior spiritual causes. Only 
some instances, which are not coincidences, occurring 
under circumstances which admit of no explanation by 
the usual laws of sensuous contact, are properly at- 
tributable to our kindly watching guardian angels. 

Human goodness must be recognized and appreciated 
in justice to human nature. But how shall it be done ? 
How say, while a person is still " above ground," just 
the grateful and glorious words that are his or her due ? 
Is it not an absurd and a barbarous custom, often a 
source of wretchedness to the living, which prohibits or 
discountenances the utterance of just and appreciative 



182 THE ARABULA. 

sentiments ; until, perhaps, through lack of the en- 
couragement which the expression would have afforded, 
the heart breaks, and the victim is buried by a weeping 
multitude with " pomp and circumstance !" Neglect 
and abuse him, or her, until death suddenly slams the 
door in your face ; then, Oh, then, how black your dress, 
how tearful your eyes ! You recall the friendly smile, the 
tender words, the noble bearing, the sweet scenes, the 
hallowed associations ; and — Oh ! Oh ! Oh ! your grief is 
great to behold ! During the deceased's lifetime you 
seldom spoke a comforting word. You would croak 
over little failings and exaggerate common faults, 
never whispering an approving word for fear of " nat- 
tering " or "injuriously complimenting" the familiar 
one ; but now that the beloved form lies stretched and 
cold before you, your heart is breaking with grief! 
Alas ! Alas ! And you desperately want the minister to 
hold the cross before you, to breathe the prayer of con- 
solation ; and you also want him to loan you, at least 
for a few days, his holy anchor of hope in this hour of 
sorrow ! Rather quaintly it has been said, that " death 
is the consoler of the lowly, the Nemesis of the mighty, 
the avenger of all wrongs. Death robs the wicked of 
their prosperity, and delivers the good from all evil. 
Death takes away the sting of poverty and the need of 
wealth. In the grave the poor shall possess what they 
desire, and the rich shall lose what they possess ; the 
portion of both shall be rottenness and nothingness. 
The grave is a garment for the ragged Lazarus, and 
nakedness for the purpled Dives. Death is the heir of 
all earthly sovereignty, and, in this world, the king that 
never dies." 



SPECIAL PKOYIDENCES AND OBITUARIES. 183 

Under the embarrassments of custom, I am forbidden 
to render in plain English an expression.of the grati- 
tude we feel toward certain individuals in this world. 
Suppose, for example, it should be related that a gentle- 
man (who, of course, must be nameless), knowing that 
our hearts and labors were consecrated and devoted to 
the Lyceum for children, and knowing also that we 
then had not a dollar of income from any source: — and 
mark ! plenty of wealthier men knew all this just as well 
as he — went, with tender humility and true modesty, to 
an intimate acquaintance of ours, ascertained from him 
how many dollars per week would cover our home 
expenses, then deposited in the bank the amount 
required for almost a whole year, and thus put us above 
temporal anxieties, so that we could give free lectures, 
write letters, compile the Lyceum Manual, organize 
Lyceums, and, in a word, give our whole time and 
energies to the work for children, which was, and is, so 
all-important in our feelings and understanding. 

If that gentleman's physical form was now quietly 
reposing in the cemetery, and if his superior soul-form 
had entered upon its mission of being forever the 
temple of the spirit, then it would be most becoming 
and appropriate for me to write his obituary ; in which 
I could freely set forth his " kindness," his " intelli- 
gence," his " virtues," &c, &c. ; but now, because 
he is living among men, in good health, and trying to 
become very wealthy, just like all the other selfish sin- 
ners, I will only say : " Sir, we are very much obliged 
to you. We think you did just right, and nothing 
more. You were a friend of children (there are to-day 
fifteen thousand in the Lyceums), whom you may meet 



184: THE ARABTTLA. 

for the first time in the bright Sn mmer Land. We think, 
on the whole, that yon are no better than you should 
be. We hope that yon will ' keep your health ' and be 
fruitful in all laudable undertakings." 

While on this subject, post-mortem, praise, perhaps it 
may be instructive to observe, in the language of a 
cotemporary, " that some of the most affecting episodes 
in the lives of literary men have been connected with 
domestic bereavements." These accounts demonstrate 
that human conjugal affections, when not raised to the 
superior condition by an unfolded intelligence, guided 
by true spiritual insight, are first surcharged with 
grief, and subsequently inconstant ; yet how beautifully 
tender and touching and true when writing obituary 
reminiscences or post-mortem eulogies ! The tribute of 
Sir James Mackintosh to his wife (says the compiler of 
cases) is among the most remarkable in the language. 

" I was guided in my choice," he says, " only by the 
blind affection of my youth. I found an intelligent 
companion and a tender friend, a prudent monitress, 
the most faithful of wives, and a mother as tender as 
children ever had the misfortune to lose. I met a 
woman who, by the tender management of my weak- 
nesses, gradually corrected the most pernicious of them. 
She became prudent from affection ; and, though of the 
most generous nature, she was taught economy and fru- 
gality by her love for me. During the most critical 
period of my life, she preserved order in my affairs, 
from the care of which she relieved me. She gently 
reclaimed me from dissipation ; she propped my weak 
and irresolute nature ; she urged my indolence to all 
the exertions that have been useful or creditable to me, 



SPECIAL PROVIDENCES AND OBITUARIES. 185 

and she was perpetually at hand to admonish my heed- 
lessness and improvidence. To her I owe whatever I 
am, to her whatever I shall be." 

It detracts somewhat from the romance of the case, 
perhaps, that Sir James became consoled for his loss, in 
just one year from the time of his great, bereavement, 
by a second marriage. And here we may venture the 
somewhat obvious remark, that the domestic histories of 
remarkable men are the most pleasing records of litera- 
ture, for the reason that, in these matters, every reader, 
however humble, has a sort of personal interest in the 
narrative, readily recalling his own feelings in similar cir- 
cumstances, or the history of his own friends, and so hav- 
ing a community of joy or sorrow with distinguished per- 
sonages of other times. It must be confessed, too, that 
the cool and business-like way in which biographers 
sometimes dispose of affecting domestic events is notice- 
able, especially when, as in the case just mentioned, 
the reader has hardly got over his emotions of sadness at 
the end of one chapter, and is told at the commencement 
of almost the next one of the happy marriage of the man 
for whose intense grief his eyes are still moist. It rarely 
happens that a man who is his own Boswell does not 
manage this matter with more delicacy. The case of 
the Rev. Dr. Spring may be regarded as a remarkable 
exception. This well-known octogenarian has recently 
favored the public with lively Personal Reminiscences 
of his Life and Times, in which he copies extracts from 
his private journal that are not seldom u rich and rare." 
Thus, under date Aug. 7, 1860, he writes : " This morn- 
ing, at half- past 8 o'clock, my sweet wife was released 
from this scene of debility and suffering." And, after a 



186 THE ARABULA. 

particular account of her sickness, and a statement that 
she was the mother of fifteen children, he indulges in a 
strong expression of his feelings — not unnatural, but 
perhaps as well suppressed in the printed volume — and 
winds up with some verses in which the soundness of 
doctrine is more remarkable than the poetic expression. 
Just five pages further on, in the very next entry in the 
diary, the worthy Doctor, after admitting that his 
" sweet wife was too valuable a woman ever to be for- 
gotten," and that he "never thought lie could love 
another," says that he had advanced beyond threescore 
years and ten, was partially blind, and needed a helper 
fitted to his age and condition : — 

"No one needs such a helper more than a man in 
my advanced years. I sought and God gave me another 
wife. A few days only more than a year after the death 
of Mrs. Spring, on the 14th of August, 1861, I was 
married to Abba Grosvenor Williams, the only survi- 
ving child of the late Elisha Williams, Esq., a distin- 
guished member of the bar. She is the heiress of a 
large property, and retains it in her own hands. She 
is intent on her duty as a wife, watchful of my wants, 
takes good care of me, is an excellent housekeeper, and 
instead of adding to the expenses of my household, 
shares them with her husband." 

In addition to which remarkable circumstance, the 
autobiographer asserts, that 

" Not until after our mutual engagement was entered 
into, did we know that we were descended from the 
same stock, and that our grandmothers were sisters." 

A French author gives an account of a nobleman who 
lost his wife, to whom he was tenderly attached, and 



SPECIAL PROVIDENCES AND OBITUARIES. 187 

with thoughts occupied only with the hope of joining 
her in another world, shut himself up for three years 
in a religious retreat. He uttered a prayer to God, 
which some may be surprised to find in the mouth of a 
French marquis : " dlaccroitre mon courage et de one 
laisser ma douleur." Give me strength, but diminish 
not my sorrow ! Certainly a most delicate and poetical 
sentiment. But the bereaved husband was still young, 
and after three years of retirement, he quits it, marries 
again, and plunges into political intrigues and the 
worldly ambition of his class. The writer from whom 
we derive the account remarks, with calmness and 
placidity : " This is one type of our inconstant nature. 
But here the very intensity of one feeling seemed to 
forebode the reaction of the opposite ; and the change 
appears so natural, so almost inevitable, that we rather 
sympathize with it than otherwise." In other words, 
those widowers who apparently and demonstratively 
suffer the most under such circumstances are the surest 
to be early consoled by a new arrangement. They may 
not, like Dr. Spring, u ask God for another partner," but 
they are pretty sure to find one, nevertheless. 

The dedication of Mill's book on Liberty is familiar 
to all : — 

" To the beloved and deplored memory of her who 
was the inspirer, and in part the author, of all that is 
best in my writings — the friend and wife whose ex- 
alted sense of truth and right was my strongest incite- 
ment, and whose admiration was my chief reward — I 
dedicate this volume. Like all that I have written for 
many years, it belongs as much to her as to me; but 
the work as it stands has had, in a very insufficient 



188 THE AEAEULA. 

degree, the inestimable advantage of her revision ; some 
of the most important portions having been reserved 
for a more careful re-examination, which they are now 
never destined to receive. Were I but capable of in- 
terpreting to the world one-half the great thoughts and 
noble feelings which are buried in her grave, I should 
be the medium of a greater benefit to it than is ever 
likely to arise from any thing that I can write, un- 
prompted and unassisted by her all but unrivaled 
vision." 

Horace Mann thus wrote of his deceased wife — the 
daughter of Rev. Dr. Messer, of Brown University, who 
lived but two years after her marriage : — 

" She supplied me with new strength for toil and new 
motives for excellence. Within her influence there 
could be no contest for sordid passions or degrading 
appetites; for she sent a divine and overmastering 
strength into every generous sentiment, which I cannot 
describe. She purified my conceptions of purity, and 
beautified the ideal of every excellence. I never knew 
her to express a selfish or an envious thought ; nor do 
I believe that the type of one was ever admitted to 
disturb the peacefulness of her bosom. Yet in the 
passionate love she inspired, there was nothing of ob- 
livion of the rest of mankind. Her teachings did not 
make one love others less, but differently and more 
aboundingly. Her sympathy with others' pain seemed 
to be quicker and stronger than the sensation of her 
own ; and with a sensibility that would sigh at a 
crushed flower, there was a spirit of endurance that 
would uphold a martyr. There was in her breast no 
scorn of vice, but a wonder and amazement that it 



SPECIAL PROVIDENCES ASD OBITTJAEIE3. 1S9 

could exist. To her it seemed almost a mystery; and 
though she comprehended its deformity, it was more in 
pity than in indignation that she regarded it ; but that 
hallowed joy with which she contemplated whatever 
tended to ameliorate the condition of mankind, to save 
them from pain or rescue them from guilt, was, in its 
manifestations, more like a vision from a brighter world, 
a divine illumination, than like the earthly sentiment 
of humanity. But I must forbear; for I should never 
end were I to depict that revelation of moral beauties 
which beamed from her daily life, or attempt to de- 
scribe that grace of sentiment, that loveliness of feeling, 
which played perpetually, like lambent flame, around 
the solid adamant of her virtues." The period which 
elapsed before Mr. Mann's second marriage is not 
stated in his biography. It appears to have been 
something over ten years — a length of time which is 
very unusual in such cases. 



190 THE ARABULA. 



CHAPTER XLIII. 

MOURNERS AND CROAKERS. 

Omniscience has implanted a propensity in the prin- 
ciples of man's mind — and to discern it clearly is to be 
benefited, and not defeated, by it — in the selfish grati- 
fication of which all men, consciously or unconsciously, 
wisely or otherwisely, are full of lamentations and croak- 
in gs for what in story is called " spilled milk." 

I croak, thou croakest, we croak. Yea, we mourn 
the degeneracy of the human family. (" Present com- 
pany always excepted.") There is, in these days of 
mediocrity, of mental shallowness, nothing, nothing, 
and nobody, to compare with even the babies of the 
Past ! As poets, we mourn, yea, we croak, that, in 
these days of soft sentimentality and silly rhyming, we 
find no Homer, no ^Eschylus, no Cervantes, no Shak- 
speare, no Milton, no Cowper. Our Bryants, Longfel- 
lows, Whittiers, Lowells, Emersons, Brownings, are no- 
bodies. They cannot furnish the great poetry demanded 
by our great minds. And we mourn and mourn, and 
we croak and croak! 

Carlyle is mourning for the good old heroic days of 
Frederick the Great. Military gentlemen gaze away 
admiringly, adoringly, to the era, departed era, of the 
great Napoleon. As artists, we croakingly mourn that 
we did not live in the days of Angelo, "Rubens, Titian, 
and the great masters of the mediaeval ages. No artists 



MOURNERS AND CROAKERS. 191 

in these times ! The great-minded contemporaries of 
Shakspeare cared so little about u The Great Dramatist," 
and left in books so little in his favor, that it is now, as 
some scholars affirm, exceedingly difficult to demon- 
strate by the laws of history that there ever was any 
snch man. But we mourn and mourn, and we croak 
and croak! 

Religionists mourn that they did not live in the 
glorious and holy days of Jesus, and John, and Paul. 
Then they could have heard language and witnessed 
miracles in keeping with their lofty tastes and great 
capacities for comprehending such things. The so-called 
inspired utterances and spiritual manifestations of these 
weak days cannot meet the religious demands of minds 
so exalted, and hearts so full of truth. And they mourn 
and mourn, and they croak and croak ! 

Politicians mourn the departed days of Washington, 
Jefferson, Jackson, Adams, Clay, Webster — days of 
giant intellects — men capable of constructing argu- 
ments and using language adapted to the great abili- 
ties of their living mourners. Lincoln, Sumner, Wade, 
Wilson, Washburn, Julian, Chase, Stanton, and the 
others — no-bodies, mere political nothings, compared 
with the wondrous greatness of departed giants — and 
we mourn and mourn, and we croak and croak ! 

And have we not reason for mourning ? The case is 
this : We (the mourners) have been moving forward, 
untrammeled and free, ever active and always harmo- 
nious, with just and natural admiration for great minds 
like our own ; meanwhile the mass of men has been 
" degenerating," losing the " conservative " grandeur of 
character, becoming inflamed with a shadowy belief in 



192 THE ARABULA. 

" progression ;" and so we mourn and mourn, and we 
croak and croak ! 

There are, this moment, half a million of beautiful 
babies crying in their cradles, who, when they shall 
have reached that ultimate mark of manhood known in 
law as " the age of discretion," will, because they are (I 
trust) our legitimate descendants, keep up the family trait 
of mourning and croaking, because there will be about 
them no Garrisons, no Phillipses, no Emersons, no Bry- 
ants, no Parkers, no Beechers, no Greeleys, no Whittiers. 
Oh, the stores of wisdom they would have gathered in, 
had they lived " in those glorious days !" They wonder, 
possibly, why their ancestors (i. e., we, the present great 
mourners and croakers) did not more vividly and more 
reverently realize that they had, within their immediate 
grasp, the rare wisdom and varied experiences of great 
men — for " there were giants in those days !" But 
until those babies attain the " years of discretion," we 
must do our best, and so — we mourn and mourn, and 
we croak and croak ! 

Already an accomplished gentleman has written 
" The Bequest of Spiritualism," as though it were a 
religious movement of the gigantic past, calling for a 
respectful obituary notice ; whereas, viewed with less 
historic and more intuitive eyes, Spiritualism is yet like 
a child, whose little feet are not poised to the earth's 
center, who has been dressed in its pretty clothes, and 
tumbles, and bumps its head, and cries with wide-open 
mouth, and calls in a loud voice for its mother, or for 
vigilant nurses, all which happens to it in making the 
tour of the sitting-room. What it is, or what it is to do, 
or how long it will live untranslated, or to what insti- 



M0UENEES AKD CEOAKEES. 193 

tutions it will be married, or how many sect-descend- 
ants it will propagate — are questions, with answers, too 
far in the non-existent future to merit more than specu- 
lative meditation. But this we know : — Our progeny 
will be mourners and croakers. They will, with their 
capacious intellects and high culture, spurn and neglect 
and defame the characters of their contemporaries ; and, 
looking back upon these hallowed days, so redolent 
with inspirations, and so opulent with mediumistic 
demonstrations (and through persons, too, about whom 
none but the persecuting religionists could utter a con- 
tumacious word), will exclaim : " Oh, that we could 
have lived in the times of the Hares, and Edmondses, 
and Chases, and Owens, and Harrises, and Davises, and 
Ballous, and Howitts, and Coopers, and Ashburners, 
and Higginsons, and Finneys, and Brittans, and Wil- 
lises, and Tuttles, and Hardinges, and Dotens, and 
Scotts, and Homes, and Newtons, and a host of others 
equally worthy ; for then, Oh, then, in that great de- 
parted epoch of gigantic intellects, and living inspira- 
tions, and reliable mediums, and disease-curing miracles, 
we could have been fed and gratified, in accordance with 
our refined tastes and cultured abilities — but, alas ! 
alas ! we live in an ?ge of mediocrity in regard to all 
these things; and so we mourn and mourn, and we 
croak and croak !" 

And our modern ladies, too, and even those who are 
not only ladies, but greater than ladies — the women of 
our day — -are mourning and croaking because they do 
not find among their acquaintances a Queen Bess, a 
Margaret of Anjou, a Madame Boland, a De Stael, a 
Guion, a Somerville, an Edgeworth, the Countess of 



194 THE ARABULA. 

Derby, Grace Darling, a Siddons, a Maria Theresa, an 
Elizabeth, a Jeanne d' Albert, or an Isabella of Castile. 
Instead of these noble specimens of the race — warriors, 
poets, historians, actors, novelists, and rulers of empires 
— our moderns have to contemplate the mere nothings 
of this century — a Browning, a Fuller, a Bremer, a 
Howitt, a Hosmer, a Childs, a Hunt, a Fowler, a 
Miller, a Mitchell, a Mott, a Nightingale, a Bonheur, 
a Swisshelm, a Yictoria, a Ristori, a Lander, a Farn- 
ham, a Stone, a Stanton, a Dale, a Dix, and a thousand 
others — all mere non-entities. Oh, so far behind the 
genius of our educated man! and so far below the 
abilities of our modern ladies! that they cannot help 
treating them with indifference, or openly denouncing 
them, and thus they mourn and mourn, and they croak 
and croak. 

The moral of it all is : While justly reverencing the 
memories of those who have lived and worthily wrought 
in the Past, and while erecting magnificent monuments, 
and writing obituaries in Greek and Latin, over the 
dead skeletons, once the lime-foundations of human 
temples, whose proprietors have long since found better 
company in the Summer Land ; we, their successors 
and historical administrators, should not deprive our- 
selves of the current manifestations of Arabula, as they 
appear and reappear in the poetry, painting, music, 
morals, religions, governments, inspirations, revelations, 
reasonings, ideas, and reforms of our own day and 
generation. 



DEATH OF MY FATHER. 195 



CHAPTEE XLIY. 

DEATH OF MT FATHER. 

Look with pure Reason's pure eyes — which is the 
clairvoyance of the whole superior spiritual conscious- 
ness — and you will perceive plainly, and not as " through 
a glass darkly," impressed on all things, the truth- 
tracks of immutable omniscience. In nothing is the 
infinite goodness more beautifully manifest than in the 
government of what blind and grave dreading intellect 
entitles " The King of Terrors." 

Death is no enemy to mankind ; rather a servant of 
Life. He carries the key to the door which opens w T ide 
upon the templed grandeur of the imperishable Universe. 
It is impossible that he should ever travel to " where 
the soul wanders in sublimest thought." His govern- 
ment is of the earth, earthy. His breath is never felt 
across " the hallowed plains where angels dwell." He 
is sovereign pontiff in the lower kingdoms of life and 
organization. But he has no throne in the higher 
realms of existence. 

Your reason tells you this : The Spirit can, by expe- 
rience, know absolutely nothing of the " King of Ter- 
rors." He falls a supplicant, yea, a driveling imbecile, 
at the feet of Spirit. The Spirit goes happily, exult- 
ingly, through the wreaths of worlds to the Summer 
Land, which is lighted by a belt of suns and constella- 
tions, which are forever rolling musically in the bound- 



196 THE AEABTJLA. 

less sky. But Death! Oh, joy! joy ! lie drops power- 
less at the base of the " Mountains of Life," with no 
eyes to see the path of the Spirit ; which, guided by the 
pole-star of love and wisdom, rises through the wel- 
coming heavens triumphantly, unshackled by terres- 
trial gravitation, and sweeps onwardly, singing the 
excelsior songs of eternal progression. 

Furthermore, Death is a screening process to some 
extent. Beecher, under the afflatus of Arabula, said : 
" How strange and blessed must be that emancipation 
which passes upon every man when the great deliverer, 
Death, puts his ordaining hand upon the heart and 
head." 

And like a philosophical Spiritualist he affirms : " We 
shall enter upon another life divested of many of the 
hindrances and encumbrances of this. We shall, how- 
ever, lose none of the things that one should wish to 
retain. We are double in this life ; for the problem of 
our existence here seems to be to develop a blossom of 
spirituality out of the stem of materiality ; to develop 
out of the physical body, and to ripen a spiritual 
soul. *#,'#.* 

" It seems to me that much that mars life is what 
we call infirmity ; and that when we die we leave 
behind us many things that we call faults, and 
follies, and sins, as the trees shed their leaves when win- 
ter comes. When the body dies, oh, how much will 
perish that is the result of the forces of those passions 
which sleep with the flesh ! When we go from this 
world, how shall we be released from ten thousand 
things that belong to our physical state, and that tend 
to hinder our spiritual development. 



DEATH OF MY FATHER. 197 

And when, in departing from earth, we shall be strip- 
ped of the flesh and all its influences, we shall find in 
ourselves beauties and glories more than we have ever 
dreamed that we possessed. * * * * 

"And so there are many passions, many appetites, 
many lower faculties, that are indispensable to our phy- 
sical conditions, which we can easily imagine will drop 
away from us when we pass out of this life, and yet 
leave the soul unimpaired. The reason, the affections, 
all the higher faculties, will go forth into immortality; 
but it will be no small thing to have left behind those 
things which belong to the body exclusively, and from 
which come largely the distemperature and trouble that 
afflict us in this life. If there may be a hope that in 
part we shall leave behind the appetites and passions, 
and that those which we carry with us shall no longer 
be turned downward, as here, to minister to evil, but 
shall be evermore turned upward as auxiliaries of the 
higher feelings, then the thought of departing, the 
thought of going forth, should not be one of loss, but 
one of essential gain." 

Readers of the " Magic Staff," by returning in mem- 
ory to the earlier chapters, will recall the image and 
characteristics of my father. Here, it is only needful 
to remark that the last few years of his life were com- 
fortably spent under the roof of our " Orange Home." 
There was gratitude in Mary's heart, as much as in 
mine, because it was within our power to afford him 
this retirement and independence. 

It was precisely a quarter before six o'clock, Monday 
afternoon, April 10th, 1865, when my venerable father 
closed his physical eyes forever. Those eyelids which 



198 THE AKABULA. 

had been raised and dropped, opened and closed, in 
keeping with the laws of action and rest, during eighty- 
three years of earthly existence, went down over the 
fixed gaze for the last time. He a died," externally 
when " life " in the temple became heavy and a bur- 
den. 

For years his chief source of entertainment consisted 
in books and the liberal publications of the day.* He 
had no taste for landscapes and rambling walks in the 
parks. Society had no attractions. Before his sight 
grew dim with age, and while his hand remained 
steady, there was nothing so attractive as industry. 
When he laid aside his apron and packed away his 
tools, under the pressure of his own senses, that they 
were no longer capable of serving him in his accustomed 
labor, he was a very sad and dissatisfied man. For 
over a year after "closing up" his bench, his eye was 
restless, and his tongue was ever asking for " something 
to do to fill up time." 

Many hours of each day, during the last three years, 
his thoughts were devoted to subjects concerning the 
" inner life," and especially concerning the prospect of 
existence in the " Summer Land." Independent in his 
temperament, and naturally strong in his mural attri- 
butes, and fond of mental liberty in every particular, he 



* The Banner of Light, published in Boston, was my father's favorite 
paper. It is the only Spiritualistic organ that was ever unflinchingly 
and unswervingly devoted to the advocacy and demonstration, through 
facts of mediumship, of the Central Idea of Individual Immortality. My 
father used to read every week the communications through Mrs. J. H 
Conant. And many times lie said : " As soon as I can, I will go to 
Boston ; and you'll hear from me through Mrs. Conant." 



DEATH OF MY FATHER. 199 

was fed and satisfied with the principles of the Har- 
monial Philosophy. They were a light to his under- 
standing and an anchor to his sonl. He fully investi- 
gated the claims of old theology, and therefore for 
himself ascertained the absolute truth of harnionial 
principles. 

TTith reference to " death," he invariably expressed 
himself perfectly satisfied. Several times, during the 
last twenty months of his life, he had " visions " of the 
higher and better. His only anxiety seemed to be, 
that, owing to a naturally healthy and vigorous body, 
he might be compelled to " live too long." His stand- 
ing saying was : " When I can no longer be useful, then 
I want to be off." His last days were a perfect fulfill- 
ment of every prayer I ever heard him utter with 
regard to the closing scenes of his terrestrial pilgrim- 
age. 

It was my privilege to witness the rolling down of 
life's curtain, which shut from his material senses the 
outer world of effects in which we yet dwell ; but I was 
not prepared, just at that hour, to withdraw to the 
secret closet of clairvoyance. Therefore, like others 
present when he ceased to breathe, I saw the usual 
external, grand, solemn fact. Of the locality or con- 
dition of his spirit I had no perception, but supposed 
that, as in most of the numerous instances I had witnessed, 
he would probably depart from the Orange home to the 
Summer Land in the course of from one to three 
hours. 

On the subsequent morning I arose somewhat earlier 
than usual, and was the first to open the north door of* 
the hall looking upon the garden. I walked out upon 



200 THE ARABULA. 

the stoop, and halted at the second step of the short 
flight of stairs outside, and leaned lightly against the 
west banister, musingly looking at the flowering fruit- 
trees and beautiful verdure of the vines and shrubbery, 
and listening to the music of song-birds. 

At this moment, I felt a commotion in the atmos- 
phere at my right hand. This aerial agitation was so 
surprising to my sensation, that, in less time than I can 
write this sentence, it had reversed the poles of outer 
consciousness. In a word, I was translated into a most 
perfect state of clairvoyance. This state, so far at least 
as personal sight and consciousness are concerned, is 
identical with the condition of a person fully awakened 
" after death." It is unlike the state of the departed in 
one essential particular, that while the clairvoyant is 
still an inhabitant of the physical body, the departed 
one is wholly emancipated from the organic structure. 
The clairvoyant can, for the time being, see things and 
principles with the same sight that is natural to those 
who no longer dwell in the earthly body, but who live 
in the Spheres. 

The incoming of clairvoyant perception at that 
moment, and by means of what seemed to be an atmos- 
pheric disturbance wholly external, proved of great 
advantage. The movement of the air was like that 
caused by a body passing with great swiftness through 
the immediate space. With my attention thus attracted 
I turned to the right, and at once saw my father in the 
act of passing out from the hall into the atmosphere, on 
a plane level with the floor of the stoop ! Imagine my 
surprise, because I had somehow settled into the convic- 
tion that he had left the Orange home even before the 



DEATH OF MY FATHER. 201 

undertaker had performed his first kindly offices. True, 
my sister Eliza once said, during the evening, that to 
her it seemed that " father's spirit had not gone out of 
the house." 

The face was his own in every essential feature and 
line of expression. In stature he was perhaps four 
inches shorter, and in general proportions about the 
same as I remember him thirty years ago, being con- 
sistent with the remarkable alteration in the height of 
his person. His motions seemed to be the result of 
some will-power or intelligence outside of his conscious- 
ness. He walked out with a kind of indecision, or 
languidly, and with the step of unconsciousness peculiar 
to one moving about in a somnambulic state. There 
was, however, an expression upon his countenance of 
complete repose. No child in the slumber of innocence 
ever looked more serene and happy. It was the expres- 
sion of " rest " and profound satisfaction ; and along 
down over his shoulders and new-born body there flowed 
and shone the same indescribable atmosphere of con- 
tentment and beauty. 

On reaching the open space in front of the stoop, 
without seeming to notice that I was observing his 
movements, or indeed without taking any particular 
interest in any thing that was going on with himself, 
he turned to the east, and rapidly glided to the side of 
a person, who, until that instant, I had not observed. 
The moment I saw this manly, intelligent personage, I 
was satisfied that his will, and not my father's, had 
developed all the voluntary movements I had witnessed. 
Unquestionably, his state was like that known as som- 
nambulism; and he did not awaken on touching the 



202 THE AEABULA. 

side of the spiritual man, who stood waiting for him on 
the northeast corner of the house. Their heads were 
about level with the window-sills of the second story. 
Immediately after he reached the other's side, the twain 
rose rapidly toward the east, and passed beyond the 
reach of my already retiring vision. Thus my father 
withdrew from his earthly entanglements ! 

In my joyousness and gratitude I hastened within to 
tell the " angel of the house " what had transpired but 
a few moments before. " Mary ! I have just seen father 
go out of the hall, and around the corner of the house." 
For a moment she appeared overcome with astonish- 
ment, thinking of the possibility of the fact being ex- 
ternal ; but, quickly gathering her thoughts to my 
meaning, she began to enjoy with me the glorious laws 
of resurrection, by which the old are made youthful 
and the sick healthful — by means of which all are pre- 
pared for progress and usefulness in the higher realms 
of existence. On going up-stairs, to the room where 
reposed the cast-off body of the departed one, I chanced 
to step into a small bedroom at the south end of the 
upper hall, which at that time was not used for any 
purpose, and there most distinctly I realized that, in 
that unoccupied spot, the final spiritual organization 
which my father bore aloft, on the wings of the morn- 
ing, was formed and prepared for the eternal pilgrimage. 
The atmosphere was still warm with the constructive 
process, which had been so beautifully carried forward 
during the night. In the whole temple of the Father's 
wisdom and the Mother's love, I know of no spot more 
sacred than that where the Spirit is clothed upon for 
immortality. 



DEATH OF MY FATHER. 203 

For months and months, until two years had nearly 
passed, we received no tidings from the departed. How 
strange that no word, no sign of existence, came to our 
waiting senses ! To those who are less in communi- 
cation with the Summer Land, such continued silence 
must indeed be painful, if not the cause of skeptical 
misgivings and vague distress. But to me these " mis- 
givings " and this " vague distress " are strangers. 
Patience and Time brought the long-looked-for com- 
munication. Taking up the Banner of Light bearing 
date " May 28, 1867," and glancing over the names and 
addresses in the " Message Department " — as you go 
to the window aperture of the post-office and hopingly 
ask the clerk to " look over the package of letters, and 
see if there is n't one for you " — so, running over the 
published messages from the departed to their friends 
on earth, my eye was suddenly arrested by the follow- 
ing : [The questions and remarks in brackets are by the 
gentleman (Mr. White) wh©, I am informed, presides 
at all the public sessions of Mrs. Conant.] 

I am Samuel Davis, and I've come to send a message 
to my boy, Jackson. I want to tell him that the phi- 
losophy that the spirits teach through him is true. I 
know he 's aware of it, but I feel like coming back here 
and telling him /know it's true. And I want to tell 
him, too, that I was right close by him when he was 
standing beside my body, before it was laid away. And 
I was so near that I could understand the remark he 
made to a friend of his who stood near. It was this : 
" He has n't yet ascended ; he 's here."* 

* This remark / do not recall. But I am assured by persons present 
at the time, that the expression is correct. 



204: THE ARABULA. 

That was true ; I had n't entirety separated myself 
from the body ; I was there, and I seemed to hear what 
he said, through waves of sound that conveyed the 
meaning to me. 

I 'm very happy in the spirit-world ; perfectly satis- 
fied ; and I 'm proud to be able to come back and de- 
clare that he was right ; that the intelligences who took 
him when he was a little boy are wise and good, and 
they have instructed me in many things since I came 
to the spirit- world, and assisted me a great deal. 

Lhave met his mother, although we 're not together. 
She is" entirely different from me, so we are satisfied to 
live apart. She's better, better than I am. 

And I hope he'll be spared here on the earth to do 
good, a great deal more good than he has done, and 
never get out of the way of doing well. 

[How long have you been away?] Only a few 
months. You know my boy Jackson ? [Andrew Jack- 
son Davis?] Yes. [Of course we do.] Well, then, 
you '11 see he has my message. [He '11 get it.] I sup- 
pose so, because he takes the Banner. Good-day. 

My Reader ! Have you a vacant chair at the hearth- 
stone ? Have you in solemn sorrow, wearing the mantle 
of mourning, walked to the Silent Garden and wept, as 
the men shoveled the cold earth upon the paiuted 
casket, which contained the form of one dearly beloved ? 
Did you feel desolate and bereft ? If so, there is in the 
world a balm for you. It is the truth of the Spiritual 
Philosophy. When walking through the cemetery at 
Orange, you may, perchance, observe a white stone 
bearing the name of " Samuel Davis," and under it this 
immortal motto : — 

"Death is hut a hind and welcome servant, who 
unlocks with noiseless hand life's flower-encircled door, 
to show us those we love" 



THE QUINTESSENCE OF THINGS. 205 



CHAPTER XLY. 

THE QUINTESSENCE OF THINGS. 

A formidable and fearless writer exclaimed : " O, 
Truth of the earth ! O, Truth of things ! I am deter- 
mined to press my way toward you. Sound your voice ! 
I scale the mountain, or dive in the sea after you !" 

Thus, too, was I determined ; but not in the forces 
of my will ; for my intellect, now in the resurrection, 
was drawn by a divine attraction. I was now recover- 
ing from the physical prostration mentioned in a pre- 
vious chapter. " What and where is God ?" — a fre- 
quent question of my intellect in its former un resur- 
rected state, was now unceasingly answered in the deep, 
deep rest of my entire consciousness. My conscious 
spiritual identification with the quintessence of things 
enabled me to say, in the language of the Arabula — " I 
and my Father are one." The profoundness of this 
experience made " expressive silence " the only appro- 
priate expression. This, and this only, was my whis- 
pered acknowledgment : — 

" Seldom upon lips of mine, 
Father ! rests that name of Thine 
Deep within my inmost breast, 
In the secret place of mind, 
Like an awful presence shrined, 
Doth the dread idea rest ! 
Hushed and holy dwells it there, 
Prompter of the silent prayer, 



206 THE ARABTJLA. 

Lifting up my spirit's eye, 
And its faint but earnest cry, 
From its dark and cold abode, 
Unto Thee, my Guide, and God." 

Language cannot picture the fullness of my private 
" life with God." The tranquillity and happiness of 
this state surpassed any and all of my other experiences. 
But one day, all was changed ! And why ? Because, as 
I have explained to you before, I was becoming selfish 
in my sequestered happiness. All at once I realized 
that seven-tenths of the intellectualized part of man- 
kind were at that very moment "without God, and 
without hope in the world" — skeptical, miserable, un- 
principled, straying, and restless as evil itself. 

Contemplating the world, I saw that, where intellect 
was unbound, there was little or no perception of, or 
faith in, a Divine Existence. But that, in countries 
where intellect was yet trammeled by ignorance and 
fear, faith and superstition sustained the millions. 
And that every people, country, and age, had a name 
for its Idea of God. Allah, Chur, Addi, Zain, Ezsi, 
Adad, Odin, Gott, Theos, Deus, Dieu, " Jehovah, Jove, 
or Lord " — but that, associated with the name, I could 
perceive no corresponding knowledge of how such a 
Being exists in the constitution of things. " Hence," I 
thought, " does not man's intellect need some rational, 
scientific, and mathematical basis on which to erect a 
true and lasting temple of knowledge of God ?" Is it 
not within the grasp of man, intellectually, to trace 
the facts and follow the principles of "Nature up to 
Nature's God ?" I recalled the significant recorded 
astronomical fact, that, from the year 1821 to 1815, it 



THE QUINTESSENCE OF THINGS. 207 

was becoming more and more certain that there was a 
planet outside of Uranus, because there were irregu- 
larities in the motion of Uranus which were otherwise 
unaccountable. After a careful investigation, Leverrier 
announced, in 18^6, that those irregularities would be 
accounted for by a planet of a certain size in a certain 
place in the heavens, but so distant as to be invisible 
without telescopic aid. The planet Neptune was found 
in consequence of that announcement, corresponding in 
position and appearance with the prediction. And 
although it was subsequently shown that the orbit of 
Neptune did not correspond with the orbit of the pre- 
dicted planet, yet the fact remains, that the existence 
of Neptune was determined with a considerable degree 
of certainty by astronomical theory, before it had been 
proved by ocular demonstration. 

I meditated that scientific discoveries and philoso- 
phical triumphs were never so numerous or st> prophetic 
as now. And it further seemed to me that, upon 
grounds of induction, similar to Leverrier's process of 
reasoning, the human intelligence might make its own 
discovery, and establish its own demonstration of God. 
These thoughts led me to the following philosophical 
argument. It was published in the Spirit Messenger 
without its author's name, and subsequently copied into 
the Herald of Progress. It is reproduced in this volume, 
because the line of argument and the illustrations are 
strictly in accordance with the necessities of every in- 
telligent mind. 



208 THE AKABULA. 



CHAPTER XLVL 

GOD KEVEALED TO INTELLECT. 

The construction of the following argument, in my 
own mind, originated in the necessity of my nature. 
Some years ago, I had the misfortune to meet the falla- 
cies of Hume, on the subject of causation. His specious 
sophistries shook the faith of my reason as to the being 
of a God, but could not overcome the fixed repugnance 
of my heart to a negation so monstrous ; and conse- 
quently left that infinite, restless craving for some point 
of fixed repose which atheism not only cannot give, but 
absolutely and madly disaffirms. 

Through the gloom of utter skepticism, I turned for 
relief to the Treatise of Paley, and other reason ers, on 
the mere mechanical hypothesis, but there found, as I 
deemed, an impassable hiatus in the logic of the argu- 
ment itself. I was forced to admit that every machine 
must have had at first a machine-maker; but I saw 
clearly, that the fact of its being a machine must, first 
of all, be proven, before the reasoning could hold at all ; 
and thus the argument was worthless. For as it is 
based on the assumed postulate of an actual creation, 
and as such a postulate is any thing but self-evident, it 
needs to be demonstrated. And no logician of the 
whole mechanical school has ever attempted to furnish 
such a demonstration. Indeed, were creation once 
proven, there would be no necessity for more argument 



GOD EEVEALED TO INTELLECT. 209 

on the subject, since a Creator would on that supposi- 
tion be proven also. 

But I saw a still more fatal defect in the reasoning 
of Paley. I said to myself, Suppose that we admit the 
world to be a machine ; still, we have no evidence that 
the machine-builder exists now. The watchmaker 
of Paley's example may have ceased to be, countless 
centuries ago, and still the watch remain as perfect as 
ever. And thus the mechanical conception of the uni- 
verse could afford me no ray of light. 

And yet I sought with eager solicitude for some solu- 
tion of this vast world-enigma. I resembled a child 
who, in the crowd, had lost its parent. I went wildly, 
asking of every one, "Where is he ? have ye seen him?" 
But there was no answer. I teased philosophy, science, 
and literature with endless questionings, but all in vain. 
I plunged in fierce excitements, but no solace was there. 
The infinite void in my want-nature would not thus 
be filled. I was as an Arab, washing himself with 
sand instead of water. Neither the heat of the heart, 
nor the impurity of even the surface, diminished by any 
such lavation. I will not attempt to paint the intense 
gloom of my situation. Death seemed t© ride on the 
present hour as a race-steed of destruction. The past 
was a grim waste, strewn with the ruins of worlds, men, 
and things. The future was a chill mist hovering over 
incalculable sepulchers. Every voice in creation seemed 
to me a wild wail of agony. The godless sun and cold 
stars glared in my face. I turned often to the pitiless sky, 
which no longer wore the poetic hue of my credulous 
boyhood. 

One beautiful evening in May I was reading by the 



210 THE ARABULA. 

light of the setting sun in my favorite Plato. I was 
seated on the grass, interwoven with golden blooms, 
immediately on the bank of the crystal Colorado of 
Texas. Dim in the distant west arose, with smoky 
ontlines, massy and irregular, the blue cones of an off- 
shoot of the Eocky Mountains. 

I was perusing one of the Academician's most starry 
dreams. It had laid fast hold of my fancy without ex- 
citing my faith. I wept to think that it could not be 
true. At length I came to that startling sentence, 
" God geometrizes." — " Yain revery !" I exclaimed, as 
I cast the volume on the ground at my feet. It fell 
close by a beautiful little flower that looked fresh and 
bright, as if it had just fallen from the bosom of a rain- 
bow. I broke it from its silvery stem, and began to 
examine its structure. Its stamens were five in number; 
its green calyx had five parts ; its delicate corol was 
five-parted, with rays expanding like those of the 
Texan star. This combination of fives three times in 
the same blossom appeared to me very singular. I had 
never thought on such a subject before. The last sen- 
tence I had just read in the page of the pupil of So- 
crates was ringing in my ears — "God geometrizes." 
There was the text written long centuries ago ; and 
here this little flower, in the remote wilderness of the 
West, furnished the commentary. There suddenly 
passed, as it were, before my eyes a faint flash of 
light. I felt my heart leap in my bosom. The enigma 
of the universe was open. Swift as a thought. I calculated 
the chances against the production of those three equa- 
tions of five in only one flower, by any principle devoid 
of the reason to perceive number. I found that there 



GOD REVEALED TO INTELLECT. 211 

were one him dred and twenty -five chances against such 
a supposition. I extended the calculation to two flow- 
ers, by squaring the sum last mentioned. The chances 
amounted to the large sum of fifteen thousand six hun- 
dred and twenty-five. I cast my eyes around the forest ; 
the old woods were literally alive with those golden 
blooms, where countless bees were humming, and but- 
terflies sipping honey-dew. 

I will not attempt to describe my feelings. My soul 
became a tumult of radiant thoughts. I took up my 
beloved Plato from the grass where I had tossed him in 
a fit of despair. Again and again I pressed him to my 
bosom, with a clasp tender as a mother's around the 
neck of her sleeping child. I kissed alternately the 
book and the blossom, bedewing them with tears of joy. 
In my wild enthusiasm, I called out to the little birds 
on the green boughs, trilling their cheery farewells to 
departing day — " Sing on, sunny birds ; sing on, sweet 
minstrels ; Lo ! ye and I have still a God !" 

Thus perished the last doubt of the skeptic. Having 
found the Infinite Father, I found also myself and my 
beloved ones — all, once more. By degrees I put to- 
gether the following argument. I tried it by every 
rule of logic; I conjured up every conceivable objection 
against all its several parts, and grew thoroughly satis- 
fied that it contained an absolute demonstration. But 
I rested not here. I resolved to have it tested to the 
uttermost. For this purpose I journeyed all the way to 
Boston last winter. I presented it to the most eminent 
pantheists, atheists, and skeptics of that literary city. 
Not one of them attempted to point out a flaw in its 
logic. 



212 THE AEABULA.. 

Thus I became convinced that the demonstration is 
utterly unassailable; and I therefore offer it without 
hesitation to the criticism of the world. 

The aggregate argument is my own ; though many 
of the particular elements have been freely borrowed 
from others. 

The principal consideration, however, is not as to 
authorship, but validity. And this may readily be de- 
termined. Let the objector designate its fallacy, and I 
will be among the first to renounce it altogether. Until 
this is done, I hold myself pledged to maintain it in fair 
controversy against all adversaries ; though I will not 
debate the question with any person unacquainted with 
algebra, geometry, and the rules of strict logic. 

" God Geometrizes." — Plato. 

The following argument assumes a bold tentative. 
It undertakes to demonstrate, in an absolute manner, 
not only the being, but ever-present agency of the 
Deity in all the phenomena of the material universe. 
It professes to solve the old problem that has puzzled 
philosophy in every age, ever uttered by human curi- 
osity, but perhaps never, as yet, answered by pure 
reason — " What is the true nature of causation ?'" 

Beyond all controversy, this must be regarded as the 
fundamental problem of all real science ; for we know 
nothing, we never can know any thing, but causes and 
effects. All time and eternity form but one vast flow- 
ing stream, where these come and go like waves of the 
sea. All space is but the expanse where these rise and 
fall in oscillations, as of some ethereal fluid of infinite 






GOD REVEALED TO INTELLECT. 213 

extent, vibrated by a viewless force. Well has a distin- 
guished pantheist of the modern German school worded 
this profound idea : " The soul will not have us read any 
other cipher but that of cause and effect." All scientific 
treatises, however pompous their nomenclature, con- 
tain but generalizations of these, expressed in mathe- 
matical formulas, with greater or less accuracy. I am 
stating a simple fact, admitted on all hands. Cause and 
effect are thus correlatives in language and thought. 
The former is first, both in logic and chronology. It is, 
therefore, the necessary exponent of the latter. Unless 
its true nature be comprehended, nothing else can pos- 
sibly be understood. If we err at this great starting- 
point, every subsequent step must prove a blunder in 
every process of philosophical inquiry. And accordingly, 
universal history shows that the false solution of the 
radical problem has been the fruitful source of all pesti- 
lential heresies, both in philosophy and religion. 

To the mighty question, " What is causation ?" four 
different answers, and no more, can be given — the 
skeptical, the material, the pantheistic, and the rational, 
or Christian. 

To assert that man is utterly ignorant of the true 
nature of causation, is total skepticism. 

To predicate the doctrine of invariable sequence, as 
did Hume and Brown, presents the formula of material- 
ism. Idealism is but another phase of the same false 
view ; for both idealism and materialism are at a certain 
depth identical, as they both take for granted that all 
Nature is but a dream-show, a mere conjurer's trick 
of fleeting appearances, where phenomena have only 
the tie of antecedent and consequent, to bind them 



214 TUB ARABULA.. 

together in a union that touches nowhere and produces 
nothing. 

If we answer, that emanation is the only causation, 
we are landed in pantheism. All individual existence 
vanishes away, and with it all proper ideas of right and 
wrong, of truth and falsehood ; and, in fine, all logical 
predicates of every name and nature ; for if nothing 
remains but indivisible unity, proposition is impossible, 
since it would be absurd to assert unity of itself. 

The only remaining conceivable answer I deem the 
rational, the Christian, the true one — that causation 
alone resides in mind; that matter never can be a 
Cause ; and, therefore, every phenomenon in the uni- 
verse is, and ever must be, but the effect of intellectual 
force exerted by pure volition. 

This view we now proceed to demonstrate, after 
the rigorous method of the geometricians, and discard- 
ing, as much as practicable, all loose and rhetorical 
digressions. 

Proposition I. 

We may lay it down as a general proposition, that 
the perception of mathematical truth evinces mind of a 
lofty order. 

It is for this reason the universal consent of mankind 
has placed Pythagoras and Plato, Archimedes and 
Kepler, Newton and La Place, among the very fore- 
most of the species. We would not exalt beyond due 
bounds the dignity of mathematical studies. We have 
long since awoke from the dream of our youth, that 
supposed a vain distinction of high and low among the 
sciences, which ought to be like the halo of a star, 



GOD REVEALED TO INTELLECT. 215 

bright all around. But, beyond question, there is no 
good reason for the neglect of those ennobling, strict, 
and severely logical exercises in onr elementary educa- 
tion. Far wiser was the lesson taught by the great 
Plato, in the inscription engraved over his immortal 
academy — "Let no one presume to enter here who 
does not understand geometry." 

However this may be, even in this age of light studies, 
no enlightened mind will deny that the power to per- 
ceive mathematical truth is essentially an attribute of 
no mean intellect. 

CoEOLLARY. 

Hence it follows, a fortiori, as a self-evident corol- 
lary, that to evolve mathematical motions — or, in plainer 
terms, to work mathematically, evinces mind of a still 
loftier order. 

For to evolve mathematical motions unquestionably 
implies their perception. No person will assert for a 
moment that an analyst can reduce algebraic equations, 
or solve geometrical problems, and demonstrate theo- 
rems, without comprehending in the one case the 
meaning of the terms, and in the other the axioms and 
definitions on which the operations hinge. 

To present this view in the clearest possible light, we 
beg leave to offer an obvious illustration. 

Suppose that John and James sit down to work out a 
knotty question in decimal fractions ; John passes from one 
operation to another with the skillful rapidity of an ac- 
complished arithmetician, adding and subtracting swift 
as thought, and balancing tangled columns of vast num- 
bers into a definite and accurate result ; while James 



216 THE AEABULA. 

can understand the explication of it when it is stated in 
luminous order on the sheet before his eyes, but finds it 
wholly impossible to accomplish the task for himself. 
Now, which of the two, in the given case, manifests the 
superior intellect ? The veriest skeptic must answer — 
" He who has not only the penetration to perceive, but 
the mental power to perform the processes assigned him." 
Thus, undeniably, to evolve mathematical motions im- 
plies not only their distinct perception, but the additional 
faculty of an active power also. Finally, I put the 
question home, and the entire controversy betwixt the 
believer and the atheist turns upon the answer — Can 
any one work out all the sublime problems of mathe- 
matics, from the simplest in the first book of Euclid to 
the most complex in conical sections, without the mind 
to comprehend what he is doing? He who responds in 
the negative must crucify reason and betake himself to 
utter insanity. 

The discussion of our second proposition will place 
this averment above all dispute. To that we will now 
attend. 

Proposition II. 

All the motions of the material universe, in all their 
wondrous variety and unity, are strictly mathematical. 

The foregoing proposition is susceptible of proof by 
an immense induction. The field for its exercise has 
absolutely no other limits than the frontier line that 
encircles the domain of science. A hundred volumes 
might be filled with instances, and still the materials 
would remain unexhausted in their infinite richness. 
Every new discovery in the abyss of unfathomable 



GOD KEVEALED TO INTELLECT. 217 

Nature adds to the store, which is as vast as the immen- 
sity of creation. 

We have only room in this 'hasty dissertation for 
a few ont of incalculable millions of examples. Our 
choice will be only embarrassed by the teeming pro- 
fusion that crowds upon our eye, and almost over- 
whelms every sense of the soul, from the circles of 
light that spread in decreasing intensity and augmented 
distance around the candle, near which we are now 
writing these paragraphs, to yonder remote pale star 
that twinkles through the open window, immeasurable 
leagues away, in the midsummer's eight of a cloudless 



Induction I. — Myself. 

I will begin with my own organism. 

I survey my right hand ; it has five fingers. I look 
at my left ; it has five also. There is another member 
of an algebraic equation. This is singular. I turn 
down to each foot, and on each behold five toes. There 
is another equation. This is still more singular. I 
then think of my bodily senses ; there are five again. 
The wonder is increasing. And now all the millions of 
my fellow-men rise up before the mind's eye — and in 
rapid succession. Lo ! the countless millions of mil- 
lions that have lived and die 1 pass along the great 
world-stage, in the view of astonished meditation ; and 
they all, with unimportant exceptions, possess the 
miraculous five fingers on each hand, five toes on each 
foot, and glorious five senses. If this be not a God- 
announcing miracle, then is human reason itself a 
dream, and all truth a worthless fiction. 
10 



^ 



218 THE AEABULA. 

But let me apply to myself the rigorous doctrine of 
the calculation of chances, lest I suffer my judgment to 
be deceived by undue excitement of the organ of 
wonder. 

In this calculation of chances, let me bear in mind an 
ingenious remark of Archbishop Whately, that " the 
probability of any supposition is not to be estimated by 
itself singly, but by means of a comparison with each 
of its alternatives." 

Now there are but two suppositions possible as to 
this mysterious combination in the human organism, by 
which the number five is five times repeated, not only 
in myself, but in all the myriads of mankind. For 
these wondrous equations there must be a Cause; and 
that Cause, whatever may be its nature, and by what- 
soever name you see fit to express its existence, be it 
necessity, law, order, physical force, or God, must 
either possess intelligence to perceive its own marvelous 
results, or else be destitute of such intelligence, and 
work blindly through all its processes. There is no 
means to evade the force of this statement. These two 
are positively the only alternatives which logic allows 
us. For in abstract, definitive division, a perfect affir- 
mation and negation always exhausts the subject 
divided. Every thing, in the whole compass of thought, 
must be either a tree or not a tree; and as there is 
nothing that can be neither, so nothing can be botli at 
the same time. Just so, every Cause, or assemblage of 
Causes, must possess intelligence or not. 

Therefore this wonderful combination of fives must 
,be produced by either a rational Cause, or one wholly 
irrational — by a Cause that can perceive the relations 



GOD KEVEALED TO INTELLECT. 219 

of number, or otherwise — in fine, by a Cause that can 
count, or one that cannot count five, or any other numeri- 
cal amount whatsoever. 

Let me now assume the first alternative. If the 
Cause that arranged the relations of my several organs 
be sufficiently intelligent to understand the mathemati- 
cal harmonies, then all is luminous. There is no chance 
to be calculated against their production, since he who 
comprehends the relations of number, can, of course, 
evolve such relations to any extent, and indefinitely, 
nay, infinitely, if he be granted to be infinite himself.. 

Let me now take up the only remaining alternative 
which the given case permits. 

I will assume that the Cause, call it what you please, 
which produced this even combination of fives on my 
hands, feet, and in my corporeal senses, be not mathe- 
matical mind at all, but unconscious force — what, on 
such a supposition, are the chances against one single 
combination of fives, in a pair ? Let the fixed laws of 
eternal mathematics answer the question. Suppose we 
had two dice with five faces each, marked in arith- 
metical order, one, two, three, four, five ; we shake 
them in a box — what are the chances against turning 
up the number five on each ? Every gambler will 
answer, " the chances against such an event are just 
twenty-five, the square of the numbers on the several 
faces ; or the total number of ways in which two 
separate series of fives can possibly be arranged." 

Apply this analysis to the given case of the human 
organism. If the Cause which made me, man, be 
indeed destitute of mathematical reason, the chances 
against my possessing five fingers on each hand are 



220 THE ARABULA. 

twenty-five ; add the five toes on each foot, and the 
chances are six hundred and twenty-five. Then incor- 
porate into the calculation the five senses, and the 
chances are three thousand one hundred and twenty- 
five. Let me now get a larger sheet, for the full flow 
of infinite numbers is fast pouring in upon me. Now 
calculate the chances against this combination of fives 
in two men ; they swell to the enormous sum of nine 
millions seven hundred and sixty-five thousand six 
hundred and twenty-five. Then calculate the chances 
for four men like myself. They will be the square of 
the last number, and so on forever. But the immense 
sums overpower all the most magnificent processes of 
our algebra, and no logarithmic abbreviations can aid 
us to grasp what soon stretches into immensity. 

The attempt to apply the calculation to all the 
innumerable millions of mankind now living, and all 
that have lived and passed away, were as idle as to 
essay the enumeration of sunbeams shed during sixty 
centuries of solar years. The algebra of an archangel, 
with infinite space for his balance-sheet, and eternity 
for the period of solution, were insufficient, perhaps, for 
the overwhelming computation. 

I would advise the atheist, before he dares grapple in 
this argument, to refresh his memory with the doctrine 
of the calculation of chances, in his favorite La Place — 
or, at least, to look into his common arithmetic. No 
acquaintance, however profound, with Fichte, Hegel, or 
other German mystics, will avail him aught in such an 
inquiry as the present. 

In relation to my single self, I might pursue the 
subject much further. Throughout all the members of 



GOD REVEALED TO INTELLECT. 221 

my body there runs a wondrous duality — in my eyes, 
arms, hands, feet, ribs, and the convolutions of the 
brain, where equal numbers balance each other. 

The simple question that settles the controversy on its 
true basis is this : Could any cause without the intellect 
to perceive — the reason to count, produce all these 
invariable equations ? Shrink not from this simple 
problem, I beseech thee, O, my brother ! The infinite 
hopes hang upon it, and all time and eternity — the life 
everlasting, and the loves dearer than life itself. Fly 
not for refuge to barren logomachies. It will not 
thus be resolved. Answer me not, that these are only 
the effects of law ! Say not, with Ralph Waldo Emer- 
son (who thus responded when I presented the demon- 
stration in private conversation), that " It is Order which 
does all this !" That is no solution of the problem at 
all, but only its statement in a different form. The 
enigma cannot be read by a mere repetition of the same 
idea crouched in other words. The difficulty remains 
as inexplicable as ever. For these equations, this sub- 
lime universal harmony, is the order itself — neither 
more nor less. Could the order constitute itself? Can 
there be order without intellect ? 

But even supposing that we allow a reality to the 
abstractions. Let us admit, for the argument's sake, 
that Law, or Order, or any idea you please, caused 
these mathematical harmonies of equation, in every 
series and degree ; the same question rebounds upon us 
with undiminished force : "Is that wonderful order, 
that mysterious law, self-conscious ? Knows it what it 
doeth ? Can it count ? Hath it mathematical reason ?" 

If ye answer " Ay," very well ; ye believe in God, 



999 



THE ABAEULA. 



though ye misname him. But if ye say " No," the 
vailed Sphinx repeats her riddle. " How, then, can 
blind force produce heavenly harmony, and midnight 
darkness gild all worlds with ineffable radiance? 
Whence come these iris- winged splendors that flash up 
through all immensity 1 Yonder are the halos, but 
where is their sun V 

I know the beggarly sophism to which the skeptic 
ever flies as Lis dernier resort. He will reply, " Sup- 
pose we acknowledge a Grod to account for this mag- 
nificent order, we only postpone the difficulty in- 
definitely, without attaining the required solution. 
For then we must attempt the greater problem, to 
account for the existence of Deity himself." This 
objection is plausible only in appearance, and can 
never satisfy anv but very-shallow minds. The acute 
logician sees through it at a glance. It is one of the 
most pitiful specimens of ignoratio elenchi. It is 
founded on a total misapprehension of the true dif- 
ficulty. 

The reason why we set about accounting for the 
present order and harmony of Nature is, because we see 
with our own eyes its finite evolutions passing immedi- 
ately before us. We see many millions of them begin ; 
we watch their progress, as in some gorgeous panorama ; 
and we behold them terminate. The flower puts forth 
in spring and perishes with the advance of autumn. 
Yonder great oak on the Alleghanies was once a little 
acorn, and shall again be nothing as an organized form. 
The child was born to-day ; last year it was not, and 
next summer it may die. We are made acquainted 
with indubitable tokens of commencement in the whole 



GOD REVEALED TO INTELLECT. 223 

material universe. We read those infallible signs in 
the first leaf of the Bible of creation, scorched, as it 
were, among the primitive rocks, by the mighty fire- 
pen of world-volcanoes. The star that shoots from the 
midnight sky proclaims as it falls : — i; Look, mad athe- 
ist ! Lo ! I bad a beginning once, as now I have an end 1" 

For this reason we seek to account for these passing, 
present events — these mathematical motions, which it 
were worse than lunacy to deny. We are irresistibly 
forced to the predication of a Cause by a fixed necessity 
of our rational nature. Failing to do so would be, not 
to over-soar the condition of living men, but to sink 
below the moral status of even brute instinct. 

But the idea of a God presents no such problem. 
Here the necessity of the intellect does not hold. There 
is not a token, in all time or throughout all known 
space, of his commencement. . He is not revealed to us 
by Eternal Reason in the character of an effect at all. 
In the mere conception of his whole being and attri- 
butes there is nothing whatsoever phenomenal. There- 
fore, to assert for the Divinity a producing Cause, were 
as foolish as to affirm a like predicate of the infinite 
space, his everlasting and unchangeable habitation. 

We say, then, to the atheist, show us only the slight- 
est proof that God ever began to be, and then, but not 
till then, can you, with any show of philosophical con- 
sistency, demand of us to account for his being. We 
admit that every phenomenon must have a Cause. 
Present us, then, some evidence that the Deity is a 
phenomenon, and we will hear you with patience, 
when you inquire for a pre-existent producing power. 
Eo thing but phenomena implies causation. ~No one 



224 THE AEABTJLA. 

thinks of proposing such a question in relation to any 
eternal truth. Who is so silly as to ask why the three 
angles of a triangle are always equal to two right 
angles % We have dunces enough in this world of ours, 
beyond all doubt, but the darkest of them all never con- 
ceived such a problem as that. Give us the actual evo- 
lution of an undeniable effect, and its origin must be ex- 
plained — some casual force is necessarily assigned. But 
to assert such an evolution, and then seek for the evolv- 
ing power, is an act, not of philosophy, but madness. 

In the works of material nature the transient mani- 
festations pass immediately before our eyes, and there- 
fore we must, in spite of ourselves, attempt to account 
for them. No one but a fool will ever ask, " What 
was before the Eternal ? What is greater than the 
Infinite ?" But every one endowed with one pale ray of 
human reason cannot help but ask, " What caused the 
transient \ What is above the finite V 9 This is the first 
question of infancy, and the last of old age. The savage 
puts it to his reason in the earliest glimmerings of reflec- 
tion ; and it glances like a sunbeam, gilding the loftiest 
meditations of the sage. And all science is but an actual 
or ideal answer to this great radical problem of the 
universe. 

Thus we have sufficiently shown the folly of atheism 
as an objector, as well as her insanity as a constructor 
of syllogisms. And now we return to our main argu- 
ment, by which we are attempting to demonstrate that 
all motions in Nature are strictly mathematical. 

Induction II. — Chemistry. 
We will take our next comparisons from Chemistry, 



GOD REVEALED TO INTELLECT. 225 

that youngest daughter among the sciences, the beauti- 
ful child of the Galvanic Battery, brought forth in 
splendor and cradled on rollers of fire. 

Go, analyze rne a cup of water ; you find it composed 
of two parts of hydrogen to one of oxygen, by volume, 
and eight parts of oxygen to one of hydrogen, by 
weight. And these numerical ratios never vary. 
Freeze it into ice, hard as the granite of the eternal 
hills ; dissipate it into vapor of such exquisite tenuity 
that it would take a million acres of the floating mist to 
form a single drop of dew ; bring it from the salt soli- 
tudes of the ocean, or from the central curve of a rain- 
bow, and submit it to the test of analysis ; and still the 
pale chemist, as he watches the developments of his 
laboratory, calls out, " Two to one and one to eight, 
now and forever." And will any one be mad enough 
to affirm that the mighty Cause, who rolled out yon 
dark blue expanse of ocean, and bade the liquid crystal 
bubble in multitudinous springs from the fissures of 
cleft limestone, and sing in the innumerable flowing 
rills, was and is himself unconscious of the mystic num- 
bers by which the separate elements that compose its 
dual essence are married to eternity \ I would be loth 
to judge any man's heart ; but it does seem to me that 
the head which can credit an hypothesis so monstrously 
absurd must have exchanged brains with a baboon. It 
may be argued that I express myself too strongly. I 
can only say, in reply, that I do not utter the half of 
what I feel. Kor can I be made, very easily, to believe 
that any decorous terms are too severe, in denunciation 
of the moral felons of the universe, who would rob 
humanity of its dearest hopes. 
10* 



226 THE AEABULA. 

But to proceed with the argument. Go again, and 
analyze me a gallon of atmospheric air. You find it 
composed of twenty parts of oxygen to eighty of nitro- 
gen in every hundred, by volume, nearly. 

And these proportions never vary. Bring it from 
the high billows of the distant seas, or from the depths 
of the Lybian deserts, or with Guy Lussac in your bal- 
loon, bottled up twenty-two thousand feet above the 
earth's surface, and still the mystic numbers keep their 
exact count. And was the Cause of this numerical har- 
mony — the Author who rolled this ocean of the breath 
of life, forty-five miles deep,, around the globe — desti- 
tute of the reason to perceive the ratio of its union? 
Can that Cause count — yea or nay — which ever works 
in magnificent numbers ? 

But still again, go analyze me a bit of limestone. 
You discover that its elements bear a quadruple ratio. 
There are twenty-two parts by weight of carbonic acid, 
and twenty-eight of lime. Lime is composed of twenty 
parts of the white metal calcium, and eight parts of 
oxygen gas. Carbonic acid is composed of sixteen 
parts of oxygen, and six of carbon. And these propor- 
tions, too, are of unchanging uniformity. They are the 
same in the stalactite, icicle- shaped and crystal-grained, 
torn from the roofs of coral caves, and in the rifled slab, 
hurled up from the heart of the earth by the volcano's 
hand, mailed with thunder, and in the glittering pebble 
that a child picks out of the brook in which it plays 
with naked feet. What a field is here for the calcu- 
lation of chances ! What a theme for devout and trans- 
cendent wonder ! What a Bible is this among the old 
rocks ! What magic hieroglyphics on.tlie mountains I 



GOD EEVEALED TO INTELLECT. 227 

But not only are numerical characters here; sym- 
bolical angles are traced in splendor also. All the 
hundred forms of carbonate of lime split into six-sided 
figures, called rhombohedrons, whose alternate angles 
measure 105 deg. 55 min. and 75 deg. 05 min. Let the 
mathematician come with his plane trigonometry, fresh 
from the schools, and study a higher lesson. But if he 
be wise, he will study it as the great Linnaeus studied 
flowers — on bended knees ! 

Induction III. — Botany. 

We will make our next comparisons in that science 
so charming to all lovers of Nature. Not over smoky 
furnaces, or in darkened chambers, will we read this 
division of our lecture ; but out among the silken sister- 
hood of sweet-scented flowers, where the blue-eyed 
heavens smile love down in our faces, and the winds 
whisper through our sunny hair. 

The first ten classes of Linnaeus are arranged simply 
according to the number of stamens in each flower. 

Let us analyze a flower of the tobacco-plant. It is 
of the fifth class, and of course has five stamens. Its 
corol has five parts, and its calyx five points. It is so 
with every tobacco-flower on the earth. It ever was, 
and will ever remain so. 

Now let us suppose that every flower is produced by 
a Cause that cannot count ; what are the mathematical 
chances against this combination of fives, three times in 
a single flower % The answer is obviously : " One 
hundred and twenty-five ;" while the chances against a 
like combination in two flowers amount to the great 
sum of fifteen thousand six hundred and twenty-five. 



228 THE ARABTTLA. 

Let the atheist answer me, What must the chances be 
in one large field ? in all the fields throughout the 
world during one solar summer '( and extending the 
view still wider, so as to embrace all the summers ever 
shed by yonder bright sun ? 

He who can shut his eyes to the overwhelming force 
of this demonstration, deserves never more a single 
glimpse of the green fields, with their coronals of 
golden bouquets floating in their own perfume. 

Look at the lily in her snowy robes. All over the 
world, and throughout all times, it numbers but six 
stamens, and its delicate corol is six-parted. 

Some of those beautiful flowers are vegetable clocks 
and watches, and keep time with the revolutions of the 
world, and sublimer roll of the twinkling orbs in their 
eternal movements. Some open to the morning sun ; 
some beneath the blaze of noon ; others at purple 
twilight, when the soft dews begin to fall ; and one in 
the wild West, the magnificent flower discovered by 
Captain Bonneville, near the base of the Rocky Moun- 
tains, lifts its gorgeous eye alone to gaze on the mid- 
night stars ! Do these blooms of Nature's garden 
know the divisions of day and darkness, or the seconds 
and minutes of recorded time, that they thus equal our 
best pocket chronometers in taking note of the fast- 
flowing hours ? Can the Cause of all this order be unin- 
telligent ? He who can believe so may safely be set 
down in the categoxw of those who are beyond the 
reach of all argument. 

Induction IV.— Light. 
We shall not hazard a single remark as to the nature 



GOD KEVEALED TO INTELLECT. 229 

of light, that wonderful agent that plays so important a 
part in the processes of creation, and which is so beauti- 
ful in itself, and moves with a velocity so immense, that, 
with a slight poetic license, it might be regarded as a 
smile of the omnipresent Deity. We have only to do, 
at present, with its mathematical evolutions. 

Its first law is a strict algebraic formula, and may 
be expressed thus : The intensity of light decreases 
as the square of its distance increases, and vice versa. 
Does the Cause, whatsoever we may suppose it to be, 
which produces this mathematical ratio, understand the 
evolution of numbers ? If not, how, in the name of 
reason, can it be supposed to form those miraculous 
squares that often sweep, in many circles, embracing 
billions of leagues, in the stellar spaces ? Let me pledge 
faith in the wildest fictions of fairy land, the most im- 
possible fables of false theology, sooner than in such in- 
conceivable absurdities as an hypothesis like that. But 
it is ever thus ; when the human mind once rejects the 
general belief of mankind, there is nothing then too 
monstrous for its voracious credulity. 

The second law of light is stated mathematically, in 
a form equally luminous, and conveys a truth equally 
magnificent. The angles of incidence and reflection 
are always equal. Thus, if a ray of light from the sun 
fall on the table before me, at an angle of forty-five 
degrees, it is reflected again at a like angle ; and so of 
all other lines of every possible obliquity. These angles 
never vary so much as a single hair's breadth. Euclid 
or Legendre has none so perfect. Try, we entreat you, 
Oh, rational reader, with all your skill ; and see if you 
can trace any equally exact, with the pen, on the 



230 THE ARABTJLA. 

smoothest paper ! And is it possible that, after all, the 
Cause which thus geometrizes is devoid of all knowledge 
of geometry? If so, then may a blind mole — nay, a 
nonentity itself, compose a treatise superior in splen- 
dor and accuracy to Newton's world-renowned Prin- 
cipia ! 

But apply the doctrine of chances to these angles 
now being formed, every instant, all over the universe, 
and even imagination staggers under the immensity of 
the idea. Only pause here for a moment. Think of 
all the beams that emanate from the sun during one long 
summer day — of all the rays that flash out from the 
stars for only a single night. Then let your mind travel 
back over the march of dim, distant centuries, gather- 
ing age upon age, and cycle on cycle, in vast segments 
of eternity, where platonic years vanish into insignificant 
vibrations of the pendulum, and the duration of galaxies 
are seen but as shadows on the dial-plate of iniinitude. 
Then bid imagination lift her lightning wing away on 
high, from world to world remote, as far beyond the 
reach of the telescope as the glance of that magic tube 
transcends the vision of a flitting insect, and behold the 
horizon of the space that knows no limits, still opening 
forever, onward, and upward, and all around, and thick- 
ening with columns of suns, and breaking into nebulous 
starry haze, and undulating, like some shoreless sea, 
with waves of light, and then tell me the number of all 
the rays ever shot athwart the great immensity since 
the first lire-sons of heaven sang their choral hymn in 
the morning of creation — and then answer me, who 
shall calculate the chances against the perpetual, uni- 
versal . observance of. the law. in relation to angles, in 






GOD KEVEALED TO INTELLECT. 231 

and by all these, on the supposition that there is no 
God ? Only God himself may solve the mighty prob- 
lem ! 

We may here note a remarkable law, in reference to 
light of different colors, only discovered recently. 
[Children's Lyceum colors have high meanings.] 

If two rays, from two luminous points, be admitted 
in a dark chamber, and falling on white paper, or other 
suitable reflecting surface, differ in their length by 
.0000258 part of an inch, their intensity is doubled. A 
like result is produced if such difference in length be 
any multiple of that nearly infinitesimal fraction by a 
whole number. But, strange to say, a multiple by 2J, 
3-J-, 4J-, &c, gives the result of total darkness ! While 
a multiple by 2|-, 3 J, &c, gives an intensity equal to 
one ray only. In one of these cases the fact is seen, 
which, from the beginning of #ie world, has been re- 
garded as the extreme of impossibility — light actually 
produces darkness ! 

Corresponding effects are witnessed in violet-rays, if 
the difference in their lengths be equal to .0000157 part 
of an inch. And the like results are given by experi- 
ments on all other rays, the difference in length varying 
with a steady uniformity of increase, from the violet to 
the red. Who shall reckon the chances, in two cases 
only, in such vast number as these ? 

Let not shallow sciolism answer me by a pitifnl eva- 
sion, " that all this is accounted for on the principle of 
mechanical vibrations." Cannot the merest tyro in 
logic see that the difficulty remains the same? For 
the question immediately presents itself: What causes 
the vibrations?, And how can unintelligent vibrations 



232 THE ARABULA. 

be supposed to arrange such wonderful combinations of 
arithmetic ? 

Uniformity of colors in refracted light is equally 
marvelous. 

See yon dark cloud, only a moment ago one thick 
mass of gloom, lurid, almost appalling to the gazer's 
eye ! Suddenly the sun breaks forth in the western 
sky ; and lo ! in an instant the rainbow is born, and 
stretches afar the curved wings of its prismatic plumage, 
as if to play around the world ! Count well its gaudy 
colors. There is the sacred number seven, composed by 
the blending of the mystic three. And never, either on 
the land or sea, in eity or solitude, hath a single cloud 
blushed to the kiss of the sunbeam without the colors 
of the sacred seven, painted by the Divine ray-brush, in 
heavenly enameling there. O, golden-haired sun ! " O, 
airy vapor ! Father and mother of that beatiful child 
of the sky, brought forth in purple, cradled in vermilion, 
baptized in molten gold, and swathed in dan," know 
ye what ye do ? Are ye indeed blind ? Can ye count 
without arithmetic ? without the algebra of a Euler ? — 
ay, without even the poor instinct of the eagle, that 
dips his wing in the checkered cloud — would ye under- 
take to teach the whole world mathematics ? 

Were there no other proof of the existence of a Deity, 
this one consideration would settle the question forever. 
Every rainbow is an exact mathematical equation of 
every other rainbow in the universe ! 

Awake, ye dreaming metaphysicians ! Arouse from 
your darkling dormitories, and those pale lucubrations 
which are more than half slumber. Come away to the 
floods and fields, the flower-banks and the forests — out 



GOD REVEALED TO INTELLECT. 233 

here, in open space and the free air, where sea and earth 
and sky mingle in mutual embraces, like the greeting 
of youthful lovers ! Listen to the pine-songs, which are 
chants of praise, and the wind- warblers, which are 
hymns of hallelujah! Look up yonder on the fire- 
dance of innumerable rolling worlds, and then answer 
me, before the sun and all the stars — "is there no God 'P 

We will take our next inductions from the science 
of Astronomy, which is only another name for sublimity 
itself. 

For countless centuries, the stars, high and mysterious, 
had shone on in the blue vault of immensity ; and igno- 
rant man knew nothing of the nature of their move- 
ments — could not divine even what they were. But 
although knowledge may sleep, the eye of curiosity 
never closes while the heart of the human reckons one 
beat. And so the eager question was repeated in every 
age, and over all lands — " What do these lights mean V 9 
But neither to Magian on the plains of Shinar, nor to 
the prince of philosophers in the " city of the violet 
crown," came forth any answer from the silent solitudes 
of the sky. 

At length a little boy was born. His dark eye in- 
herited some rays from the light of the stars, and flashed 
with wild meaning from his childhood ; and as he grew 
up, he became a gazer at all things beautiful, and a 
questioner of all things dim. He saw all eyes turned 
to those " isles of light " that gem the seas of the upper 
firmament ; and he heard all lips repeat the earnest 
inquiry, — " What do these lights mean ?" But he heard 
no whisper in reply. He looked at them with his 
naked eye, but the God's type of their far-off letters 



234: THE AEABULA. 

could not be read so far. He ruminated on the mys- 
tery day and night, and, either waking or sleeping, he 
dreamed of the power of lenses ; and then set about 
constructing glasses to read the riddle of the lofty stars. 
He succeeded ; for there are no impossibilities to patient 
attention — there never was a bar unconquerable to the 
will that dares all things ! And then for the first time 
the vail of Egyptian Isis was lifted up, and the secret 
of ages was out. The stony eyes of the Sphinx melted 
with tears of joy ! 

What a miracle is this of the telescope ! Never a 
poet lived, but in his heart wished for pinions to soar 
and mingle with the stars. Lo ! PI ere are the plumes. 
The telescope gives not the wings to us ; but it ties 
them with lines of light to the stars, which thus fly 
down to us, and tell us all their hidden laws ! Is there 
any thing in the golden dreams of fable — in all the 
tales of fairy enchantment, to be compared to this 
sublime result, evolved by mathematical reason ? 

Next came the great Kepler, and erected his tri- 
angular pyramid of the three laws, on the tummit o£" 
which Newton stood, to fix forever the true theory of 
the universe. 

Let us glance a moment at these laws. 

1. All the planetary orbits are regular ellip.-es, in 
the lower focus of which the sun is placed. 

Propose the problem to yonder intelligent school- 
boy. Tell him to trace on the paper, with his pen, an 
elliptical curve, and dot the two foci. Can he do it? 
Come, sage skeptic, with all your boasted reason, can 
you do it yourself? The planets are masses of blind 
matter. "Who, then, will dare assert that such may 



GOD REVEALED TO INTELLECT. 235 

trace perpetually, for thousands of years, mathematical 
Hues, with a regularity that no college professor can 
ever hope to equal ? 

2. The times occupied by any planet, in describing 
any given arcs of its orbit, are always as the areas of 
sectors, formed by straight lines drawn from the be- 
ginning and end of the arcs to the sun, as a center. 

Let no one attempt the solution of this problem, in 
any specified case, unless he be a thorough mathema- 
tician. God solves it for all the planets. 

3. But the third law of Kepler is still more astonish- 
ing. Hear ! The squares of the periods of the planets' 
revolutions vary, as the cubes of their distance from the 
sun. What wonderful operations are these, to be the 
work of unthinking masses of matter ! What music is 
this among the stars, to be sung by tongueless atoms !* 

Well might the inspired old man exclaim, " I have 
stolen the golden secret of the Egyptians. I triumph. 
I will indulge my sacred fury. I care not whether 
my work be read now or by posterity. I can afford 
to wait a century for readers, when God himself has 
waited six thousand years for an observer !" 

Some cold critics have called this insanity. The 
man must be insane to say so ! I never perused the 
passage without tears. It is the language of reason and 
imagination, which, at their sublimest depths, arCbut one. 

We will not speak of chances here. We may not 
even think of them, unless we might pilfer the algebra 
of the morning star. 



* See a recent volume by the author, entitled, " The Stellar Key to 
to the Summer Land." 



236 THE ARABULA. 

Promiscuous Inductions. 

1. Some years ago it was keenly debated whether the 
sea was not receding and the dry land gaining ground; 
and the general opinion of scientific men leaned strongly 
in favor of such an hypothesis. 

At length a Swedish astronomer struck out a novel 
method of settling the" controversy. He cut down a 
large pine tree that grew at the water's edge on the 
Gulf of Bothnia, and on counting the concentric circles, 
found that it was five hundred years old ; and, conse- 
quently, during all that time the ocean must have re- 
mained stationary. This was decisive. And yet how 
wonderful the fact! Millions had lived and died; 
nations had flourished and fallen ; genius had sung its 
flame-songs, and love had breathed its burning sighs, 
and all had passed away — and still the forest-born grew 
on, buffeted by tempests, and chilled by freezing frosts, 
but nurtured always by genial summers, and fed on 
silver-singing rains, and listening to the bird-music in 
its branches, till half a millennium is gone ; and still all 
that time it had kept an exact account of its age, never 
losing a single year, all noted in beautiful circles, amid 
the fine woof of its own fibers. It is so with every cone 
of wood in the wide world. And again we ask, Can 
aught but reason trace circles, or reckon the count of 
passing time ? 

2. But let us select a last example. If anywhere we 
might suppose the absence of mathematical motion, we 
would expect to find it in those air-fiends that often 
desolate whole countries — the hurricanes of the tropics. 

But modern science teaches us " that hurricanes are 



GOD KEVEAXED TO ESTELLECT. 237 

only whirlwinds on a larger scale. That they all have 
a regular axis of rotary motion, which axis is itself pro- 
gressive, like a planet in its orbit, tracing an elliptical 
or parabolic curve." Sometimes the vortex of storm 
covers an area of over five hundred square miles, and 
sweeps over distant seas for hundreds of leagues ; but 
ever this dual motion is preserved. Ay — beyond all 
question, the hand that launches the tornado, and girds 
its dark bosom with thunder, is the same that originally 
" weighed the hills in scales, and the mountains in a 
balance ;" and not poor, blind, and utterly impossible 
chance ! 

Thus it is plain that all motions in nature are mathe- 
matical. 

But the skeptic may object : 

The proposition is not proven. For although we may 
admit that such a truth holds within the sphere of our 
actual observation, still, what right have we to extend 
the predicate beyond the limits of that sphere % What 
right can we show to carry it back to the everlasting 
ages of the eternity without a beginning, and down to 
the incalculable years of that time which shall never 
end? What right have we to break over the im- 
passable limits of the sense of sight, and assert a 
law that we know only to appertain to a little segment 
of the circle of infinitude, of all the untrodden fields 
that may bloom with worlds, like flowers in the 
unexplored spaces, of which we behold but a twinkling 
point ? 

We have stated the objection in its full force; be- 
cause it is much easier to answer than to state it. 

We reply thus : All the forms of matter must be, of 



238 THE AKABTJLA. 

necessity, mathematical, simply because it is matter; 
as all its motions must likewise be so, for the reason 
that matter is inert. 

"We ask the reader to pursue the second scholium to 
the nineteenth proposition of the fourth book of Le- 
gendre. He will there find that all the figures possible 
in space are resolvable into the triangle, and of course 
must be mathematical. 

Then let him turn to Arnott's Elements, where it is 
demonstrated that all motion must be in a straight line, 
unless controlled by some interfering force, when it" 
takes the direction of a curve. So all motion must be 
mathematical, or not be at all. 

The simple answer that demolishes the whole objec- 
tion is this : We see nothing but mathematical har- 
mony in all the motions that occur within our own 
sphere — we can conceive of nothing but mathematical 
harmony in any other sphere. We see the unequivocal 
footsteps of a God within our sphere ; and every fresh 
gush of light from the remotest suns adds to the evi- 
dences that it is so everywhere else in the wide universe. 
And this is enough. We are not called upon to roam 
over all space, and ascend the heights of all eternity, 
merely to answer a supposition destitute of even a 
shadow of proof, and verging close on the confines of 
absurdity! If we have a God ourselves, that is suffi- 
cient, if we but pay him the proper adoration. We 
need not stop to inquire whether some little mote or 
molecule of sand does or does not gyrate without a God, 
somewhere in the vast void of immensity ! 

Now let us put together, syllogistically , the two proposi- 
tions heretofore demonstrated, and note the logical result. 



GOD REVEALED TO INTELLECT. 239 

1. Nothing but mind can work mathematically. 

2. All the motions of Nature are strictly mathe- 
matical. 

Then must it follow, as a conclusion utterly unassail- 
able, that every effect in the universe is produced by the 
immediate agency of Mind.- 

To this, however, a plausible but false objection may 
be made. It was put against my argument last winter, 
by a distinguished Pantheist of Boston. 

It may be said, that although it be demonstrated that 
matter cannot geometrize, still we are not entitled 
thence to infer that mind alone can ; since there may 
be other substances in space beside matter and mind. 
What right, the objector may say, have we to assume 
duality only in substantial existence ? It is true that 
we are acquainted within our own sphere with nothing 
but these. But our sphere is scarcely so much as an 
infinitesimal fraction of the whole universe. The 
entire concavity of the sky is a mere point, dotted in a 
space of inconceivable extent. The totality of our his- 
torical time is not a second in that eternity without 
bounds, which expands both behind and before us. 
And how can we know but beyond this paltry sphere 
there may exist millions of substances that are neither 
material nor mental, but of an altogether different, nay, 
contradictory nature? And even as to that, we are 
limited in our own fragmented sphere by the solid wall 
of impassable sensation, that shuts us up as in a cage or 
prison of iron bars, in this our little world of fleeting 
appearances. For aught we can say to the contrary, 
here, where we now dream our philosophical reveries, 
•perhaps no loftier than those the oyster excogitates in 



240 THE ARABULA. 

his shell ; yea, immediately here, in the very space oc- 
cupied by this poor grain of earth, and yonder evanes- 
cent bubbles of air and sky, there may he now sub- 
stances indefinite in number, the very opposite of matter 
and mind, and with which we have no sense fitted to 
converse ! To deny this, says the sophist, were as un- 
reasonable as for the animalculse in the dew-drop to 
assert that there is nothing but insects in the whole 
creation. 

We cannot forbear remarking what a marvelous 
amount of credulity it implies to put with a grave face 
such objections. The skeptic refuses to credit the ex- 
istence of the God who made him, though the splendor 
of the divine attributes shines on the face of all Nature 
brighter than the blaze of the myriad suns ; and yet he 
finds no difficulty at all in affirming the reality of in- 
numerable beings, the impossible brood of a wild im- 
agination, as devoid of all proof as the fairies of Scottish 
fable — the veriest of all moonshine. 

And yet even scientific men of eminent fame have 
entertained such vagaries, and gravely uttered them on 
the printed page. Dr. John Mason Good was absurd 
enough to give the hypothesis a place in that strange 
medley of fact and fiction, so pompously denominated 
"The Book of Nature." I cannot but attribute such 
crude inanities to the general neglect of logic, mathe- 
matics, and true metaphysics among the moderns. 

No person the least acquainted with logical analysis 
ever could have seriously started such an objection. It 
is founded on the sheerest ignorance of division. We 
showed, at an earlier stage of this inquiry, that the 
abscisio infiniti always exhausts the subject divided. 



GOD REVEALED TO INTELLECT. 241 

Every thing in the whole compass of thought must be 
either a tree or not a tree. It is so with matter and 
mind. We define mind, that which possesses reason; 
and we define matter, that which doth not so possess 
reason. And it is evident to a schoolboy that every 
object that ever was, or will be, or possibly can be, 
must either possess reason or not possess it. He who 
fails to see this distinction may rest assured, that what- 
ever may be his talents, the faculty of logical investiga- 
tion is not to him an attainable accomplishment. 

For surely, unless reason itself be a dream, and 
insanity the only wisdom, every substance must be 
either active or passive, have intelligence and volition, 
or not. And, therefore, matter and mind are two 
logical categories that encompass all thought and 
exhaust all Nature. We demonstrate, then : 1. That 
matter is passive, and consequently cannot be supposed 
to originate its motions. 2. That no effect in Nature 
can possibly occur without motion. We must, therefore, 
seek for casual force in the category of universal sub- 
stance, or nowhere. We find it in mind; and this is 
confirmed by our own inner consciousness, which 
assures us, by the exercise of our voluntary activity, 
that the mind within us can and does produce motion, 
and cause effects as astonishing as they are beautiful. 
We next demonstrate that nothing but the reason, 
which perceives its own operations, can possibly work 
mathematically. And then we show by inductions, as 
wide as the generalizations of science, that all natural 
motions are mathematical. Hence, they must be pro- 
duced by a cause possessing reason. And the calcula- 
tion of chances proves most conclusively that to deny 
11 



242 THE AEABULA. 

this is an absurdity a thousand times worse than the 
ravings of utter madness. 

As to all that exuberant sophistry about the impos- 
sibility of predicating any thing out of our own actual 
sphere, we may observe that it is but a common trick 
of skeptics when driven from the field of fair argument. 
They assume a feigned humility, meeker than the most 
pious believers. Creation becomes a mere point, and 
life the flutter of a leaf in the sunbeam. They claim 
affinity with the blind worm and droning beetle, and 
can do nothing but shiver with awe at the immensity 
above and beyond them. They ape all the ignorance 
of the child, without any of its trusting "confidence, its 
ardent, innocent love, or its eager, soaring hope. 

We admit the grandeur of eternity — we wonder at 
the infinitude of space ; and we freely confess our own 
littleness when compared, not with those mighty 
masses of moving matter that wheel on high over our 
heads, but with that Omnipotent Being who guides 
them in their courses'. 

For although our life is fleeting, and our globe but a 
dot on the map of the universe, we have thought, that 
wanders throughout eternity, and, " before creation 
peopled earth," even now " rolls through chaos back ;" 
and with a glance dilates o'er all to be in the vast fields 
of futurity, and climbs with winged feet the golden 
ladder of all the stars. Nothing material can do that — 
not the beam of light, shot from equatorial suns — not 
the lightning, which darts from heaven to earth in a 
moment. May we not assert, that although we be as 
nothing in the presence of that God " who wheels his 
throne upon the rolling worlds," yet one human soul of 



GOD REVEALED TO INTELLECT. 243 

the countless millions of our species is superior to all 
the worlds that God ever made or can make ? It in- 
herits the divine attribute of reason. They never knew 
the sublime " geometry of their own evolutions !" 

But it is utterly untrue that we can predicate nothing 
beyond the sphere of our own sensation. That is one 
of the follies of exploded materialism. Do we not 
know that everywhere a triangle must have three and 
only three angles ? Can we not -affirm this truth as 
certainly of the space a million leagues beyond the orb 
of solar day, beyond the farthest star that twinkles in 
blue ether, as of the little figure on the paper but six 
inches from our eyes? Must not the radii of every 
circle in the universe be equal ? Is not the whole 
everywhere greater than any of its parts? Can there 
be any phenomenon without a cause? — in any, the 
wildest of the wilderness ? — in any, the remotest cycle 
of eternity ? Can love be a crime, or murder virtue, in 
any conceivable sphere of existence ? Can truth become 
a lie for any being to whom atheism is not reason ? 
All spheres alike belong to the soul, when it puts on its 
beautiful wings, and goes forth through the open door 
of universal faith to universal triumph. Then the 
stars beckon it to their bosom, and legions of angels fly 
down to meet it. Then it becomes a note in the 
eternal anthem of sphere-melodies that hymn the uni- 
versal Father ; and in affirming God, it conquers even 
death, and is already one of the immortals. 

But again, it may be objected, that although no mass 
of matter can be supposed to move itself, yet two 
masses or elements, when brought sufficiently near, may 
move each other. 



244 THE ARABITLA. 

But this is too shallow for a serious answer. For how 
shall the given masses, or elements, or separate atoms, 
be ever brought near without first of all moving? 
And what cause may move them \ Not other matter, 
for that would be to shift the difficulty without solving 
it. Such are all the arguments of atheism — fallacies 
that are their own refutation — quibbles that a modest 
monkey, were it gifted with speech, would blush to utter ! 

Another and very common objection of scientific 
skeptics may be expressed thus : It is true, say they, 
that we are irresistibly forced by our intellectual con- 
stitution to affirm a Cause for this vast flowing stream 
of phenomenal events that together constitute the 
universe. But we find that Cause in Nature ; it is 
Nature which does all this. She builds up and tears 
down her own systems. She evolves at once the life 
and the death, which are but two different phases of one 
and the same fact, or as the opposite sections of all are, 
where the universe plays as a pendulum betwixt birth 
and dissolution. 

See how easy it is to use words without meaning. 
The shadows of language do not embarrass each other 
— do not impinge, so to speak, at all, when they have 
lost the substance of ideas that gave them soul. 

Let us ask the objector — Tell us seriously, what do 
you mean by the term Nature ? Is it a reality, or 
only a relation ? Hath it a substance ? and if so, that 
substance, as we have seen, must be either matter or 
mind — must possess reason or not. And if it be with- 
out reason, how doth its mimicry of the attribute so far 
transcend all known originals ? The difficulty loses 
nothing of its force by predicating Nature as the cause 



GOD REVEALED TO INTELLECT. 245 

of any conceivable operation. The question still comes 
up, whence this exquisite harmony, which intellect 
alone could order ? That will not down at the bidding 
of a lifeless word — that will not be solved by the art of 
a juggler, that merely shifts his penny covertly from one 
hand to the other. 

All men of sense now agree that Nature is but a 
general term — a mere abstraction. It means but the 
totality of phenomena that constitutes the universe. It 
is the very order which it is used by the sophist to 
account for — nothing more. It is an ideal exponent, a 
symbol in the mind's algebraic notation for all the 
motions of the universal whole. It does not and cannot 
give the unknown X which lies beneath them. 

It is the same with the phrase, "Laws of Nature." 
No philosopher, since the publication of Bacon's Or- 
ganon, has regarded these as any thing other than the 
very facts themselves generalized. They are merely 
classifications of observed phenomena. How ridicu- 
lously absurd is it, then, to use the word law to account 
for the facts that constitute the law, and without which 
it were not. It is a law of Nature that the sun rises in 
the morning. But that is nothing more than a general 
assertion of the particular fact ; and to say the fact is so 
because it is a law of Nature, is precisely equivalent to 
the identical proposition, " the sun rises because the 
sun rises !" 

Nor is the case at all different, if we use the word 
property instead of the word law. For recollect, that 
Matter and Mmd are the only two substances possible, 
even in imagination. And when you affirm that a 
certain property in one body causes motion in another, 



24r6 THE ARABULA. 

before you look wise, and raise a shout of gratulation at 
the fancied success of your own ingenuity, pause a 
moment and ask yourself the short, simple question — 
What is property ? Is it matter, or is it mind ? Is it 
an entity, or an abstraction ? Has it color and form, or 
hands and feet? Has it consciousness and a will? 
And above all — for that will touch, as with a ray of 
electrical light, the secret heart of the matter — be sure 
and ask, " Has the given or supposed property Reason, 
and does it understand mathematics ?" 

But we feel that on this part of our argument among 
these skeptical objections, we have wandered far from 
the sunlight of the common earth and air, into a dim 
world of empty abstractions. A cold wind breathes 
in our faces, like " the difficult air of the iced mountain- 
tops, where the birds dare not build, nor insect's wing 
flits o'er herbless granite;" or rather like the stifling 
vapors of sepulchral vaults, where shadows come and 
go, as in a dance of mocking wild-fires. Never mind ; 
let us proceed. The children of the mist will vanish 
before the torch of Reason, and the firmest pillars of 
the capital of atheism melt away into mere negation. 

I will now state an objection to the mathematical 
argument, urged in a private conversation, by an 
eminent atheistical writer of Boston, during a recent 
visit to New England. 

He said : " It is true I cannot pretend to answer your 
demonstration by laying my finger on a palpable 
logical flaw in the reasoning. But I can do more. I 
can show that it must be false, since it contradicts the 
evidence of the senses. You undertake to prove that 
one body cannot move another. Every man's eyes 



GOD REVEALED TO INTELLECT. 247 

behold the contrary. Yonder is a barrel of gunpowder. 
Let a spark fall on its surface, and the whole detonates 
instantaneously with a deafening explosion, producing 
light, heat, and sound." 

To this we reply, that in such cases as these, and all 
others of sensible motion, our eyes truly see nothing 
but the visible phenomena. "We behold the appear- 
ance, not the power which produced it. The surface is 
plain enough to view ; the solid center eludes our 
vision. Yet we know there is a producing power — we 
believe with absolute certainty in a center. We cannot 
help doing so, unless we would turn maniacs. The 
veriest atheist does the same. Ask him what causes 
the gunpowder to deflagrate on the application of a 
spark of fire ? He will not answer — unless in the last 
stage of lunacy — " there is no cause for it, in good sooth." 
That would be too much for even an atheist of the 
Modern Athens. He will respond, " there is a secret 
property in the spark to ignite the powder, and there- 
fore it must be ignited ;" and ten to one he will launch 
boldly out into a learned dissertation concerning the 
chemical composition of the powder, and the hidden 
qualities of fire, showing, with consummate ingenuity, 
how well suited they are to be joined in wedlock — how 
much they desire to be married, and what a flame- 
progeny they must necessarily beget between them ! 
~Now ask him what is that secret property in the spark 
which evolves such results ? He will surely respond — 
" It is the unknown cause, which has the power of pro- 
duction." One more question and the problem is 
solved. Is that property or cause matter or mind ? 
Doth it know what it doeth? Hath it a will to 



24:8 THE ARABTJIA. 

originate motion ? Can it move itself? And so still 
on" and forever, there can be bnt one solution for the 
universal enigma, and that alone is afforded in the 
infinite reason. We can never hope to meet with 
action, save in that which is essentially active. The 
purely passive cannot furnish it. 

But finally, as a last resort, the skeptic flies in a 
sudden panic, as it were, from his own objections, and 
takes refuge in blasphemy. " If there be a God," says 
he, in the maddened language of Shelley, " that God 
must be the author of all evil ; and such a proposition 
is more revolting than the worst forms of atheism. 
I would rather," he continues to urge, " credit any 
absurdity, or commit any conceivable folly, than ac- 
knowledge a creed like that. Can we suppose that 
a God of infinite reason and unlimited power would 
voluntarily create such a universe as this ? Would he 
give life to beings, only to confer an acquaintance with 
its exquisite sweetness, and then almost instantly take 
it away? Would he plant in quivering hearts not 
only those burning tortures which are of the very 
essence of hate, but those sorrowy stings that follow 
the rosy feet of gliding love also ? Tell me that God 
made some other world, where perfection is the order 
of Nature, and I may, perhaps, believe you. But ask 
me not to admit a divine origin for such a desolate 
sphere as this. Somewhere else, for aught I know or 
care, there may be harmony. Here I behold nothing 
but sin and disorder. Pestilence and famine — vol- 
canoes and devouring war — tempest and earthquake, 
alone reign around us. A wild, wailing howl of agony 
resounds throughout all lands ; and even brute instinct 



GOD EEVEALED TO INTELLECT. 249 

echoes the appalling cry of the human. Yanity is 
written, in fire-letters of ruin, even on yon starry 
azure, where pale suns burst in shivered bubbles, and 
vanish away. Urge not that a Deity dug, in void 
space, this universal sepulcher, haunted alone by the 
ghost of mourners, by the incalculable millions. Say 
that it is the work of some dreadful demon, and I may 
entertain the proposition !" 

Such blasphemies are horrible to hear. * * * * 
I can listen to any other man with patience. I can 
bear with the poor Pagan, who honestly bows the knee 
to his idol, painted with blood though it be. I can 
sympathize with the Polytheist, who beholds a separate 
god in every object of beauty and of wonder. I recog- 
nize a brother man struggling through the deep gloom 
of superstition, striving to reach the light. But I 
recoil instinctively from an unprincipled atheist. I 
realize the fearful presence of some dark spirit of a 
different order. 

But let us trace the objection seriously, according to 
the strictest rules of logic. 

We remark, in the first place, that it is not an objec- 
tion to the argument, as such, but a mere truculent 
tirade against the conclusion established. And even 
so to this, it is wholly irrelevant. It lies, if it be of any 
worth at all, not against the being, but the attributes 
of the Deity. The presence of evil may, or may not, 
furnish a valid reason for pronouncing as to the moral 
character of a power. It certainly does not touch the 
question of existence at a single point whatsoever. The 
dullest intellect must perceive this at once, without 
illustration, on the bare statement. The problem of 
u* 



250 THE AEABULA. 

the origin of evil has positively nothing to do with the 
proposition that God is. It belongs to a very different 
category — the inquiry as to whether God is good. 

The problem of evil has been professedly solved in 
many opposite ways. Every creed presents its own 
solution. Free-will, predestination, optimism, the fall 
of man, transitive progress, and several minor theories, 
are so many methods of explanation. We shall not 
presume to attempt an account of it. Such a tentative, 
however ingenious, can at least be but pure hypothesis. 
!N"ay, it is demonstrably insolvable without a direct rev- 
elation from heaven ; and for the obvious reason that 
the existence of evil is a contingent, not a necessary 
truth, in the metaphysical sense. It is not based upon 
any principle of eternal reason, from which it may be 
educed and expressed in analytical formulas. It is, on 
the contrary, a fact of exj:>erience, the origin of which 
can only be comprehended by actual or historical sur- 
vey. But when, or where, or how it originated, who 
shall declare ? The true question, embodying the whole 
difficulty, is this — " Why did the Deity purpose to per- 
mit it ?" or to cause it, if the wording suit you better ? 
And this, beyond all controversy, no one in the 
universe, not the oldest seraph of knowledge, can pos- 
sibly tell, unless the Deity see fit to reveal it to the 
intellect. 

For this cause, all metaphysical solutions of the origin 
of evil must ever continue to be mere hypotheses, and, 
as such, founded on very meager data. We have not 
framed such ; we have essayed to do better — to demon- 
strate their insufficiency, and unfold the reasons why 
they are so. But with this frank admission to back it, 



GOD REVEALED TO INTELLECT. 251 

the objection, even as to the divine attributes, remains 
as futile as ever. 

"We cannot judge the moral character of the Deity 
from one manifestation of his power alone, unless we 
are thoroughly familiar with the whole compass of its 
design. The act reveals the attribute only in connec- 
tion with the purpose that put forth the act. This is 
evidently true of even the finite fellow-creature. Sup- 
pose that the history of some ancient nation simply in- 
forms us that u Zanoni killed Uelika," and informs 
us nothing more. Can we, therefore, pronounce with 
unerring, or even probable certainty, that Zanoni must 
have been a bad man ? Assuredly not, unless we know 
also, in addition to the fact, the cause and motive of the 
killing. Uelika may have been a traitor to his country, 
and Zanoni put him to death as a minister of the law. 
The slaying may have been in self-defense, or in open 
and honorable war; nay, on some glorious field of 
victory, where the heroic patriot fought for the redemp- 
tion of his race, and to protect the hearth of his home 
and the wife and children of his bosom. It may have 
been, for any thing we can allege to the contrary, an act 
of the loftiest virtue, rather than one of the lowest 
criminality, or, indeed, of any guilt at all. Thus we 
reason in relation to our finite fellow-men. "Wherefore, 
then, apply a totally different sort of ratiocination to the 
ways and purposes of the Infinite Father % 

He may have permitted evil as a condition of the 
greatest good. He may have suffered it in order to 
the necessary display of that wondrous mercy which 
could be revealed alone through its partial or general 
prevalence. ISTay, he may have ordained it, in order to 



252 THE ARABTJLA. 

enhance our everlasting happiness hereafter. The shoot- 
ing pang of this fleeting moment of life may form the 
point of comparison by which to reckon the raptures 
of the whole eternity. In fine, a thousand suppositions 
may be conceived to avoid the follies of atheism and 
the sins of blasphemy. Doth the skeptic get rid of evil 
by denying God ? On the contrary, he affirms its end- 
less perpetuity — the utter impossibility of its termina- 
tion. He does not circumscribe its boundaries — he 
cures not one pain in the bleeding bosom of humanity ; 
but he extends the grisly terror into all other spheres 
of existence ; since what blind matter, and crude, un- 
conscious force has accomplished here, it must accom- 
plish everywhere and forever ! 

But the shuddering horror we experience at the bare 
idea of God's willing evil for its own sake is proof 
positive of the divine benevolence, which has thus con- 
stituted our inner nature to love virtue and abominate 
vice, even were such vice possible in Deity himself! 

Besides, we know innumerable evidences of Infinite 
goodness around us. In the boundless beauty that 
ever lives from age to age on the earth below, and in 
the splendors of the firmament above us, we see and 
feel it. We behold it in the ecstasies of youthful love, 
in the serene joys of friendship, in the cherished sym- 
pathies and endearing recollections of sweet home. It 
bubbles up even in the gratifications of sense, and 
mingles with the coarse luxuries of animal instinct. 
We hear it in the songs of birds and the evening hum 
of the bee-hive. Sickness adds a new zest to conva- 
lescence. Never is the light of heaven so enchanting as 
after a night of cloud and tempest. And even the 



GOD KEVEALED TO INTELLECT. 253 

grave itself is sometimes sought after by philosophy as 
well as religion, as a not unwelcome bed of repose. It 
is only the sin that has wrought its own keenest suffer- 
ings, which throws such gloomy colors on the features 
of Nature. The little innocent children, and all true 
poets, as well as enlightened Christians, and the great 
mass of mankind, love this same Nature so well that 
they are very loth to bid her farewell, even for the 
revealed bliss of life everlasting ! 

We will notice only one more objection, and speedily 
bring our argument to a close. It is not an atheistical 
objection, but one that will doubtless be made by many 
intelligent and pious Christians to one idea expressed in 
our conclusion, and demonstrated, as we cannot but 
deem most fully, in our whole course of reasoning. The 
idea is the immediate ever-present agency of the Deity, 
in all the phenomena of Nature. One class of writers 
on natural theology view the universe of worlds as a 
grand machine, that was, to be sure, originally put 
together by the divine hand and set in motion, since 
which time it continues to run of its own accord, like 
other mechanical constructions of a similar kind, though 
under the general superintendence and control of Prov- 
idence. 

Such is the mechanical conception of the universe, as 
opposed to the dynamic or atheistical. It allows the 
presence and agency of God : 1. At the period of 
creation ; and, 2. His occasional intervention at the 
periods of miracles. It allows, too, his general super- 
vision, to keep the machine of Nature from falling into 
pieces. But it denies altogether that every phenomenal 
evolution of matter — every motion produced, either in 



254: THE AEABULA. 

molecules or masses, is the immediate effect of a present 
volition of the Divine mind. 

This conception prevails to a considerable extent 
among scientific men ; and is embraced, perhaps, by at 
least one-half of the Christian world. 

"We have no doubt that the almost material, certainly 
sensual, philosophy of Locke, contributed mainly to 
this result in the first instance — a result still further 
strengthened by the strictly mechanical argument, pre- 
sented with such admirable clearness, in Paley's Natural 
Theology. The exceedingly eloquent writings of the 
late lamented Dr. Chalmers also aided the advance of 
this general tendency. 

We are compelled to regard the prevalence of such 
an opinion as injurious, though not designedly so, to the 
general interests of religion and science both; while 
we must feel that it strips Nature of her most highly 
poetic ornaments, and reduces her most gorgeous works 
to the condition of mere lifeless contrivances. We 
have no sympathy whatever for " celestial mechanics." 
Indeed, it seems to us that the word is a strange mis- 
nomer, when applied to the magnificent creations of 
the Deity, either on the earth or in the sky. To render 
this evident, let us consider the meaning of the term 
when used in reference to the works of human art. 

In such structures we do not create any new material 
nor any new force. We simply apply the old to the 
new purposes, by giving them a new direction. It is 
a settled law in mechanics, that no arrangement of parts 
can possibly, under any combination of circumstances, 
add one particle of power to the original stock of Nature. 
The screw, the lever, the wheel and axle, always lose in 



GOD KEVEALED TO INTELLECT. 255 

time exactly what they gain in intensity. And thus it 
is true, beyond all controversy, that the mightiest art 
of man can neither create a single new atom of matter, 
or add to the universe one iota of active force. It 
merely plans special collocations of parts, and adapts 
them to the action of existing forces. Thus it pre- 
pares the water-wheel, and places it in the running 
stream, where the revolutions are performed by an ever- 
present power. Thus is human mechanics an arrange- 
ment of means, where the human intellect co-operates 
with the uniform motions perpetually evolved by the 
Divine volition. 

!N"ow, we may be permitted to inquire, In what sense 
can the Deity be said to fabricate such contrivances ? 
He is the direct Creator, not only of the matter and 
collocations, but of all the forces whatsoever. He can- 
not possibly, then, adapt arrangements of means to the 
action of pre-existing forces, which is the sole meaning 
of the word mechanics with us. Thus is the concep- 
tion of a mechanical. Deity as false in theory as it is, in 
our humble opinion, degrading to the proper idea of 
God, which is that of an infinite free activity, the cause 
of all conceivable effects which are not the voluntary 
products of the finite activities created and preserved 
by him. 

The mechanical argument is also defective as a mere 
piece of reasoning, for — 

1. A machine doth unquestionably prove a machine- 
builder, if it be granted that the given structure be 
indeed a machine, and that it was actually created. But 
deny this — deny that a given apparatus ever began to 
be at all, and until the fact of its beginning be proven, 



256 THE ARABULA. 

the argument opens an hiatus that no extent of ingenuity 
can possibly bridge over. 

This is the first and radical defect in the reasoning 
of Paley. It is based on the postulate (not proven, or 
attempted to be proven, in his treatise) of an actual 
historical creation. The moment the question comes up 
— " But what if this earth and yonder heavens be from 
eternity?" the argument of Paley can furnish no 
answer, but silently crumbles into pieces. Atheists 
never were logicians, and they have, therefore, all failed 
to notice this ruinous flaw in JPaley's Treatise. The 
piercing sagacity of Dr. Chalmers detected its existence, 
and he essayed to supply the desideratum by consider- 
ations deduced from the facts of geology. It might, 
perhaps, be difficult to say whether he did or did not 
partially succeed. One response, however, to all his 
eloquent dissertation renders it utterly impotent to work 
conviction in a thoroughly logical mind — that if present 
physical powers can now form the individual organized 
vegetable or animal, the presumption is strong that 
past physical powers may primarily have created the 
genus and the species. To this there can be no answer. 

2. But in the second place, an equally fatal defect in 
the argument of Paley is, that it affords no shadow of 
even presumptive proof of the present existence of God 
at all ! His favorite example of the watch demonstrates 
this so clearly that we need refer to no other. 

~No watch ever constructed by the art of man can 
possibly furnish the slightest proof of the present exist- 
ence of its maker. It may continue to keep the record 
of passing time with the most admirable regularity and 
precision long after the hand that wrought and arranged 



GOD KEVEALED TO INTELLECT. * 257 

its springs and wheels had moldered into dnst. He 
may have ceased to be for a day, a year, a millennium of 
ages, and it still beat on, ticking its metallic teeth, but 
telling no news of him who first polished them, nor of 
the very fingers that wound up its slender chain but 
yesterday. May it not be so with the world, with all 
worlds, on the mechanical hypothesis ? God may have 
exhausted his power in the creation, for aught a cold 
machine may say to the contrary. He may have ceased 
to exist six thousand years ago ; nay, the very moment 
He rested from his labors, and we be none the more 
apprised of the fact by the utterance of all the mechani- 
cal suns and systems which, as to this point, are dumb 
as the coarsest clods of inorganic matter. 

Nothing can prove present power but present motion, 
or the unequivocal signs of its present being. 

But no such objections hold as to the mathematical 
and rational argument, of which we have presented the 
brief outlines in the foregoing pages. It appeals only 
to the past as witnessed in grand hieroglyphics, seen at 
the present hour, sculptured on the limestone of the 
mountains, and engraven in the soft wood of every tree 
in the forest, and written among the silken corals of all 
the flowers of the fields. 

For the most part, our argument appeals to present 
motions — the sublime evolutions that are each moment 
being manifested before our eyes. It points to the past, 
and proves that a God was. It turns to the present, 
and demonstrates that He is now. It calls to mind the 
eternal uniformity of Nature, and infers with indubita- 
ble certainty that He will continue to be forever. It 
leaves no desideratum to be wished for by its friends, 



258 THE ARABTTLA. 

and no weakness assailable by its foes. By its applica- 
tion of the doctrine of chances to the mathematical 
equations which Nature presents in ever-recurring 
series, this argument renders the creed of atheism impos- 
sible without actual insanity. 

And, viewed in this radiant light, how wonderfully 
luminous and beautiful doth the face of the universe 
become ! We behold the Deity enthroned in splendor 
everywhere, and on all things alike. We see his love- 
smiles on the petals of flowers and the wings of birds, 
as well as in the brightness of the sky and deep azure 
of the ocean. We hear his voice in the octaves of all 
our music, pealing in the deep bass of our Sabbath- 
organs, out-preaching all our priests, and tolling the bell 
of thunder, hung in clouds that float higher than the 
Andes. He weaves the fibers of the oak, he twines 
the gleaming threads of the rainbow, he vibrates the 
pendulous sea-waves, he calls to prayer from the heart 
of the storm. But sweeter, oh, sweeter far than all, 
soft and clear, and without ceasing in our own souls, 
for ourselves, and those whom we are permitted to love 
as dearly as ourselves, he whispers infinite hope and 
life everlasting. 

All this follows from the admission of the immediate 
and universal agency and providence of God throughout 
all the realms of Nature. Despair can fling no dark 
shadow on the soul in the presence of that sunshine 
which gilds all things. There is no room for doubt 
when faith fills immensity. Atoms and worlds alike 
become transfigured in the new and cryptic light which 
beams out, as from beneath a transparent vail, in objects 
the most insignificant, in scenes the most unpoetic. 



GOD REVEALED TO INTELLECT. 259 

Even the cold eyes of death ray ineffable effulgence, 
like stars rising upward to their zenith. Pale fear, 
appalled at his own shadow, flies over the confines of 
creation, and leaves all hearts alone with love and joy. 
We know that we cannot be lost out of the bosom of 
God ; for the root of the sonl is in God, and therefore 
cannot die. The iron chain of necessity releases its 
coil around the world, and its clanking links of dark 
circumstance melt away in receding mists, as in the 
presence of a sun shivered into spangles of glory. The 
tears of sorrow turn on the faded cheek of the mourner 
into priceless pearls; and prayer and praise breathe 
out among blooming roses on white lips quivering with 
agony. The old familiar faces of the ' ■ long, long ago," 
the loved, the lost, ay, the long lost but never forgotten, 
are around us once more. 

" Their smile in the starlight doth wander by, 
Their breath is near in the wind's low sigh " — 

In music's divinest tone. The endless ages are crowded 
into a luminous point. There is no past or future. The 
faith that asserts God proclaims all things present to 
the soul. We repose on the bosom of our Father with a 
confidence nothing can shake. Friends may grow cold 
and change around us; enemies may band together for 
our destruction ; lovers may fly away and leave us, like 
sunny birds when the cloud lowers, and the voice of 
thunder is heard remote. But we have one immortal 
Friend who stands between us and all foes, encircling 
our souls in his arms of everlasting love. 

For shall not he who preserves, and blesses, and 
beautifies all things, take good care of all these, his 



260 THE AKABULA. 

human children, especially created in his own image of 
power, wisdom, and love ? He paints the wings of the 
little butterfly. He gilds the crimson flower-cups where 
the tiny insect sips honey-dew at morn. He launches 
every beam of light. He adds plumes to every wander- 
ing zephyr. Every sparrow that falls from its leafy 
boughs with a chill-pain in its dying heart, falls to sleep 
on his kindly breast. Never a grain of sand, nor a drop 
of dew, nor a glimmer of light, has been lost out of his 
embrace of infinite tenderness since the beginning of 
time, nor will be while eternity rolls on. Shall he, 
then, lose me ? Can I lose myself % 

Then " will I trust him though he slay me." On the 
summit of this exalted faith, which is certainty, I rest 
secure. Nothing can move me more. The sensuous 
world has vanished from beneath my feet. I live 
already in the Spirit Land. The immortal dead are 
around me. I hear them holding high converse in the 
translucent clouds. It is no night- vision, although 
brighter than all dreams. I am become a king, for I 
am now a son and heir of the universal empire. My 
throne stands on a pyramid of mathematical principles 
as old as God himself. I have ascended a demonstra- 
tion that carries me into the heavens. I have bid adieu 
to fear. What is there to harm me in the presence of 
my Almighty Father in a universe of brethren ? There 
can be nothing more to desire. Other want is impos- 
sible. I have found God, who owneth all. 

Here, then, will I take my repose. The vessel in 
which I am embarked may drift whithersoever it will 
on this immeasurable sea of being. It may run riot on 
the giddy waves; lightning and tempest may rend 



GOD KEVEALED TO INTELLECT. 261 

every sail, and leave its masts bare. Impenetrable 
storms may hide every lodestar in heaven ; the angry 
spirit of the waters may shriek till the whole world is 
deaf. "What care I? Let the storm howl on — God 
guides it ! And on whatsoever shore the wreck is 
thrown, he is sure to be there, with all my loves and 
hopes around him ; and wherever he is, there is the 
open gate of heaven — for there is the everlasting love, 
which is heaven ! 



262 THE ARABTELA. 



CHAPTEK XLYII. 

MORE EXPLICIT DEFINITIONS. 

Kind Header, do we begin to approach and lift each 
other's consciousness ? Are we strangers still, not un- 
derstanding one another's mind ; or, are we becoming 
interiorly acquainted ? Have our minds yet met and 
mated? Do our thoughts meet and intermingle, and 
flow together in the new channel, which is stretching 
away so beautifully through the infinite landscape ? If 
we have not yet met, why not ? Am I obscure ? Or, 
are yon. obtuse ? " Come, let us reason together." Can 
we not, at least for one short golden hour, live together 
like sunshine and flowers, reciprocating each other's 
inner sentiments, and faithfully reflecting each the 
other's deep convictions, as sky and sea ? 

Let us meditate together, and prepare our minds for 
the discourse of Arabula. Are my definitions clear ? 
Let us review them. To begin, here is a tree. Call it 
" Intellect." Now analyze it : first, its myriad roots are 
the Facts (or phenomena) of the universe without ; sec- 
ond, its mighty solid body is Experience (or sensation) ; 
third, its outspreading branches are Reflections (or rea- 
sonings) ; fourth, and lastly, its fruits are Memories ; 
and the whole is called "Intelligence," or "Judgment," 
or (in the Harmonial Philosophy) " Knowledge." All 
this we mutually understand, do we not? Even if we 
do not logically meet and delightfully mate on this 



MORE EXPLICIT DEFINITIONS. 263 

classification of man's mentality — which, for promoting 
the ends of independent private growth, may not be 
desirable — yet, by the understanding, we unquestion- 
ably stand each before the other clearly defined. Well, 
now let us take another step. 

Here is another tree. Call it " "Wisdom." First, its 
myriad roots are Instincts (or, the radical fundamental 
elements and basic principles of all mentality) ; second, 
its great powerful body is Affection (or, the instincts 
arisen to the height of unselfish manifestation) ; third, 
its divinely beautiful branches are Intuitions (or, the 
unselfish, impersonal, immortal principles of conscious 
identification with the Principle of all Principles, 
God) ; fourth, and lastly, its perfect fruit is pure Rea- 
son (or, the full and complete resurrection and harmo- 
nization of all instincts and passions, of all affections and 
attractions, of all intuitions and sentiments, and of all 
the powers of thought and understanding); and the 
whole is called " Harmony," or " Spirituality," or 
" the state of resurrection," or (in the Harmonial Phi- 
losophy) by the all-embracing and immortal name, 
"Wisdom." 

In this " light," who is worthy of being called the 
possessor of " Eeason ?" He, only, whose whole nature 
is lifted into the presence of Arabula ; wherein self, 
being elevated (not " crucified," remember, but elevated 
into sympathy with divine principles), the individual 
Spirit can, with the voice of truth, say — "I and my 
Father are One !" 

What, then, shall we call that condition in which 
most men live ? This question is answered by this cen- 
tral fact : All mankind are becoming ! They have not 



264: THE ARABULA. 

yet arrived. "What the Harmonial philosophers call 
"Reason," is yet a sealed hook to the advancing mil- 
lions. The ignorant look upon that state as " super- 
natural." One in the Superior Condition, even during 
the entrancement of a single hour, is, to the mass of 
selfish and superficial sensuous observers (who are 
non-experienced in spiritual things), a " wonder," a 
strange " phenomenon," a human " miracle," a danger- 
ous " witch," a troublesome " prince of devils," an angel 
of " light," a great sign* of " spirit," the discoverer of 
" heaven," only little less than an " angel." 

No selfish man can see the light of Arabula. No 
selfish man is ever a wise man. No selfish man can 
understand what is meant by the terms u Pure Reason," 
or the higher term, " Wisdom." The mind is in 
" outer darkness " — in the realm of discord, divisions, 
and ever-recurring causes of unhappiness — until its 
interiors are open to the love, light, law, liberty of 
Arabula. It is the angel presence of this unselfish 
Guest that causes the soul to love its neighbors, to over- 
come all enmities, and to reverence the Eternal Good 
with all its heart and might. 

And so it must be said that, measured by this stand- 
ard, the world's Ideal of the heavenly state of " Pure 
Reason " is yet far, far future ; for which all naturally 
aspire ; to which all spiritual eyes are turned ; unto 
which few appeal for baptism and purification. Syllo- 
gistically, how does this look to you ? First, all selfish 
thoughts are derived from these two sources — the un- 
resurrected instincts and the fact-rooted, materialistic, 
atheistic Intellect ; second, that which is selfish, or of 
selfish origin, cannot be productive of the highest good 



MOKE EXPLICIT DEFINITIONS. 265 

and happiness ; third, man's selfishness is derived from 
his instincts and intellect ; fourth, therefore, intellect 
and the instincts are selfish, and the cause of the world's 
evil, disease, and misery. Or, from another syllogistic 
stand-point, look at the question : First, the state called 
" Wisdom " is the embodiment of all Reason, all Har- 
mony, all Happiness in the individual or in the world; 
but the infinite Mother (Nature or Love) and the in- 
finite Father (God or Reason) are the source of Wis- 
dom ; therefore, Nature and God (always in our phi- 
losophy interchangeable terms) are the causes of all 
instincts, all affection, all intelligence, all harmony, and 
all happiness. 

12 



266 THE ARABULA. 



CHAPTEE XLVIIL 

ARABTTLA's DISCOURSE ON WISDOM. 

" Writing by means of Light," is the English trans- 
lation for the Greek word "Photography," so commonly 
Bpoken in these days of chemical and imitative art. In 
this book the quality of this "light "is appropriately 
called " Arabula." Plato, a true spiritual philosopher, 
exalted this light above the intellect. Thesetetus and 
Plotinus cognized this principle of interior illumination 
as " that which sees, and is itself the thing which is 
seen." It is called the " Good," the " Unite," the " One," 
the " Virgin," the " Love," the " Undefinable." 

" The Arabula, as revealed to the good Plotinus, is 
described as the " One that is not absent from any thing, 
and yet is separated from all things ; so that it is pres- 
ent and yet not present with them. But it is present 
with those things that are able, and are prepared to 
receive it, so that they become congruous, and as it 
were pass into contact with it, through similitude and a 
certain inherent power allied to that which is imparted 
by the One. When, therefore, the soul is disposed in 
such a way as she was when she came from the One, 
then she is able to perceive it, as far as it is naturally 
capable of being seen. He, therefore, who has not 
arrived thither . . , . may consider himself as the 
cause of his disappointment, and should endeavor by 
separating himself from all things to be alone. . . . 






267 

" We denominate it the One from necessity, in order 
that we may signify it to each other by a name, and 
may be led to an indivisible conception, being anxious 
that our soul may be one." 

The language of the poet is recalled — 

—"God is God! 
Mistake, and accident, and crime, 
Are but man's growth in earth and time ; 
And upward still life's spiral turns 
To where the Love Eternal burns." 

Light ! the prime eheerer " of all beings first and 
best." Efflux divine ! " without whose vesting; beiutv 
all were wrapt in unessential gloom." Let as liear thy 
voice, overflowing with the very quintessence of truth ; 
tell us in thine own sweet words, of thy mystical jour- 
neyings ; speak to us of the Mother and the Father ; 
teach us to love Wisdom ; and lift us, we beseech thee, 
to thy holy presence. Listen ! from afar, as over the 
troubled bosom of unnumbered seas of centuries, I hear 
the voice of Arabula : — 

"Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, and the 
man that getteth understanding. For the merchandise 
of it is better than the merchandise of silver, and the 
gain thereof than fine gold. She is more precious than 
rubies : and all the things thou canst desire are not to 
be compared unto her. Length of days is in her right 
hand ; and in her left hand riches and honor. Her ways 
are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace. 
She is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her ; 
and happy is every one that retameth her. . . My 
son, keep sound wisdom and discretion : so shall they be 
life unto thy soul, and grace to thy neck. Get wisdom, 



268 THE ARABTJLA. 

get understanding: forget it not ; neither decline from 
the words of my month. Forsake her not, and she 
will preserve thee : love her, and she shall keep 
thee. Wisdom is the principal thing ; therefore get 
wisdom. . . . Exalt her, and she shall promote 
thee : she shall bring thee to honor, when thou dost 
embrace her. She shall give to thine head an ornament 
of grace : a crown of glory shall she deliver to thee. 

• • • Doth not wisdom cry ? and understanding 
put forth her voice ? She standeth in the top of high 
places, by the way in the places of the paths ; she crieth 
at the gates, at the entry of the city, at the coining in 
at the doors : Unto you, O men, I call ; and my voice is 
to the sons of men. O, ye simple, understand Wisdom ; 
and ye fools, be of an understanding heart. . . . 
Receive my instruction, and not silver; and ' Knowl- 
edge ' rather than choice gold. For Wisdom is better 
than rubies ; and all the things that may be desired are 
not to be compared to it. I find out knowledge. . . . 
Counsel is mine, and sound wisdom ; I am understand- 
ing ; I have strength. By me kings reign, and princes 
decree justice. By me princes rule, and nobles, even 
all the judges of the earth. I love them that love me ; 
and those that seek me early, shall find me. . . . 

" Wisdom is more moving than any motion : she pass- 
eth and goeth through all things by reason of her pure- 
ness. For she is the breath of the power of God, and 
a pure influence flowing from the glory of the 
Almighty : therefore can no defiled thing fall into her. 
For she is the brightness of the everlasting light, the 
unspotted mirror of the power of God, and the image 
of his goodness. And being but One, she can do all 



269 

things : and remaining in herself, she maketh all things 
new : and in all ages entering into holy souls she maketh 
them friends of God and prophets. . . For she is more 
beautiful than the sun, and above all the order of the 
stars : being compared with the light, she is found 
before it. . . . Wisdom reacheth from one end to 
another mightily ; and sweetly doth she order all things. 
He that holdeth her fast shall inherit glory ; and 
wheresoever she entereth, the Light will bless. They 
that serve her shall minister to the holy One : and them 
that love her the Lord [Light (?)] doth love. Whoso 
giveth ear unto her shall judge the nations : and he that 
attendeth unto her shall dwell securely. If a man 
commit himself unto her, he shall inherit her ; and his 
generation shall hold her in possession. For at the first 
she will walk with him by crooked ways, and bring 
and dread upon him, and torment him with her 
discipline, until she may trust his soul, and try him by 
her laws. Then will she return the straight way unto 
him, and comfort him, and shew him her mysteries. 
But if he go wrong (i. e. if he is selfish, living contin- 
ually in the instincts and intellect; she will forsake him, 
and give him over to his own ruin. Observe the oppor- 
tunitv, and beware of being selfish and evil ; and be 
not ashamed when it concerneth thy soul. For there 
is a shame that bringeth sin ; and there is a shame which 
is glory and grace. ... In nowise speak against 
the truth ; but be abashed of the error of thine igno- 
rance (and selfishness). . . . My son, if thou wilt, 
thou shalt be taught. If thou love to hear, thou shalt 
receive understanding : and if thou bow thine ear, thou 
shalt be wise." 



270 THE ARABULA. 

Arabula's voice is thus full of Wisdom and overflow- 
ing with Love. The true follower from early youth, 
exalted to the Superior Condition by her magnetically 
entrancing hand, thus acknowledges benefits prayer- 
fully : " When I was yet young, or ever I went abroad, 
I desired Wisdom openly in my prayer. I prayed for 
her before the temple, and will seek her out even to 
the end. Even from the flower till the grape was ripe 
hath my heart delighted in her : my foot went the right 
way, from my youth up sought I after her. I bowed 
mine- ear a little, and received her, and got much learn- 
ing. I profited therein, therefore will I ascribe the 
glory unto him that giveth me wisdom. For I pur- 
posed to do after her, and earnestly I followed that 
which is good ; so shall I not be confounded. My soul 
hath wrestled, with her, and in my doings I was right- 
eous. I stretched my hands to heaven above, and be- 
wailed my ignorance of her. I directed my soul unto 
her, and I found her in pureness. I have had my heart 
joined with her from the beginning ; therefore shall I 
not be forsaken. My heart [being so full of selfish 
instincts] was troubled in seeking her: therefore have I 
gotten a good possession. The Father hath given me 
a tongue for my reward, and I will praise him there- 
with. Draw near unto me, ye unlearned, and dwell in 
the house of learning. Wherefore are ye slow, and 
what say ye of these things, seeing your souls are very 
thirsty ? [Is it because ye are in bondage to self?] I 
opened my mouth, and said, 'Buy her for yourselves 
without money.' Put your neck under the yoke, and 
let your soul receive instruction." 



DEBATE ON THE BIBLE. 271 



CHAPTEK XLIX. 

DEBATE ON THE BIBLE. 

About this time I experienced a peculiar and power- 
ful attraction toward the " interior sense " of all inspired 
poetry and serious volumes. " The letter killeth," 
reasoned I ; " but the spirit of a thing is its very life, 
and it can impart i life ' to those who perceive and 
accept it." Perhaps, methought, the skeptics approach 
the investigation of the Bible with hostile prejudices — 
predetermined, so to speak, to see errors in its pages, as 
evil-minded men find in the conduct of those they hate 
numerous falsehoods, contradictions, immoralities ; and, 
so thinking, I at once resolved upon a candid and calm 
analysis of the law, the letter, and the testimon} 7 . 

And first, in this connection, let me take down the 
testimony of a skeptic ; once an influential preacher in 
" Merry England." The question which I now wait 
for you to answer fully and solemnly, is this : Did you, 
or did you not, lose your faith in the plenary inspira- 
tion of the Bible by being overcome, in some unde- 
finable manner, with selfish and atheistic temptations 
of intellect — under the baneful mood of which you 
became first prejudiced against, and then bitterly hostile 
to, the letter and teachings of the Testaments? 

The gentleman promptly answered : " The truth is, 
so far from coming to the investigation of the Bible 
with prejudices against the Bible, or with feelings of 



272 THE A.RABTJLA. 

hostility to the Bible, my prejudices and feelings all 
leaned the other way. My prejudices were all in favor 
of the prevailing doctrine, the doctrine of the super- 
human origin and divine authority of the Bible. I was 
taught that doctrine from my earliest childhood. I 
received it as eternal truth. I looked on those who 
dared even to doubt it with the most painful susjricions. 
I reverenced the Bible next to God himself. The rev- 
erence with which my parents regarded the Bible ; the 
solemn manner in which they spoke of it ; the tones 
with which they read it ; the horror with which they 
regarded those who doubted or disbelieved it ; all 
tended to strengthen my belief in its divinity. All 
those whom I loved and revered, believed in its divin- 
ity. None but those whom I regarded as outcasts and 
profligates, as enemies of God and goodness, called its 
divinity in question. Every sermon or speech that I 
heard, and every book that I read, were in favor of the 
prevailing doctrine. My strongest passions were en- 
listed in its favor. I was taught that a belief in it was 
essential to eternal salvation ; that doubt of it was to 
run the risk of eternal damnation. My prejudices grew 
with my growth, and strengthened with my strength. 
I sought to strengthen my belief by reading books on 
the subject, written by the ablest and most learned 
defenders of the divine authority of the Bible. I read 
every book on the subject I could find, on the popular 
side. I believed the books. I supposed the writers of 
them to be learned and honest, and my assurance was 
increased. I preached and advocated the common 
doctrine. I defended it against unbelievers. I wrote 
several books in its favor. I received praise and re- 



DEBATE ON THE BIBLE. 273 

wards for my labor. My reputation, my friends, my 
interests, as well as my prejudices, affections, and pas- 
sions, all joined to keep me to the Orthodox faith. 
When light at length compelled me to modify my 
belief, I yielded with the greatest reluctance. As long 
as I could, I resisted the light. I would fain have 
closed my eyes against it. To change seemed horrible. 
The thought distressed me beyond measure. The con- 
sequences which threatened me in case of change were 
truly terrible. My agony was often intense. Through 
the night, it deprived me of sleep ; through the day, it 
filled me with gloom. Nothing but an ardent love of 
truth, and an ever-anxious wish to be right, could have 
carried me through the struggle." 

" In your investigations,'' I inquired, " did you search 
the letter or the spirit of the Bible ? ? ' 

" It was the spirit within the letter that first aroused 
my faculties to independent inquiry !" 

" Indeed ! What, pray, did you find in the spirit of 
the Bible that troubled you f 

" Before I investigated the texts and the spirit of the 
Bible for myself," he replied, " I held, firmly, that the 
volume was a collection of miraculous books, written by 
supernaturally inspired men, at different periods of 
history ; and that, according to all established rules of 
reasoning, it must be from the all- wise and all-perfect 
God, and, being so derived, would show its divine origin 
on its very face, but more vividly in its spirit ; that, in 
short, the Bible was as wise, as perfect, as consistent, as 
unchangeable, and as harmonious as God himself." 

" Well, did you not find the Bible as consistent and as 
perfect as you supposed ?" 
12* 



274 THE ARABTJLA. 

No ! The more carefully I read it, the more I com- 
pared chapter with chapter and passage with passage, 
the further I got from the recognition within it of the 
Supreme Being." 

" What first arrested your attention ?" 

"The first thing that disturbed me was the 109th 
Psalm, written by King David, said to be a man ' after 
God's own heart.' It seems that he had been slandered 
and unjustly treated by some one, and this is what he 
asked God to do by way of punishment : 

" Set thou a wicked man over him, and let Satan 
stand at his right hand. When he shall be judged, let 
him be condemned, and let his prayer become sin. Let 
his days be few, and let another take his office. Let 
his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow. 
Let his children be continually vagabonds, and beg ; 
let them seek their bread also out of their desolate 
places. Let the extortioner catch all that he hath ; and 
let the stranger spoil his labor. Let there be none to 
extend mercy unto him ; neither let there be any to 
favor his fatherless children. Let his posterity be cut 
off, and in the generation following let their name be 
blotted out. Let the iniquity of his fathers be remem- 
bered with the Lord ; and let not the sin of his mother 
be blotted out. Let them be before the Lord con- 
tinually, that he may cut oif the memory of them from 
the earth. As he loved cursing, so let it come unto 
him ; as he delighted not in blessing, so let it be far 
from him. As he clothed himself with cursing like as 
with his garment, so let it come into his bowels like 
water, and like oil into his bones. Let it be unto him 
as the garment which covereth him, and for a girdle 
wherewith he is girded continually. Let this be the 
reward of mine adversaries from the Lord, and of them 
that speak evil against my soul." 

Nothing can exceed the bitterness, the cruelty, the 



DEBATE ON THE BIBLE. 275 

murderous malignity and revengefulness of this prayer. 
David is not content with the torment and ruin of the 
person who had offended him, but must pray for all 
imaginable curses and calamities on his widowed wife, 
his fatherless children, and even the unborn offspring 
of his children. Thus — 

a Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow. 
Let his children be continually vagabonds, and beg ; let 
them seek their bread also out of their desolate places. 
Let there be none to extend mercy unto him ; neither 
let there be any to favor his fatherless children. Let 
his posterity be cut off, and in the generation following 
let their name be blotted out. Let the iniquity of his 
fathers be remembered with the Lord ; and let not the 
sin of his mother be blotted out. Let them be before 
the Lord continually, that he may cut off the memory 
of them from the earth." 

"Yes," said I, "David was exceedingly angry, no 
doubt, but David was not Deity ; and it seems to me 
that you should make the discrimination." 

" Indeed, I did make the very discrimination which 
you suggest, but it did not help me ; because the volume 
abounds in absolutely conflicting ideas and irrecon- 
cilable teachings." 

" Can you give me a few examples, where the spirit 
and texts of teachings in different parts of the Bible are 
positively contradictory ?" 

"Nothing can be easier, for the volume is full of 
inconsistencies, proving that an all- wise, an all-perfect, 
and a perfectly harmonious Being could not have dic- 
tated the contents of the Hebrew and Christian Scrip- 
tures. For example (See Ex. 3 : 21, 22, and 12 : 35, 
36), robbery is commanded by God, thus : 



276 THE AEABULA.. 

" ' When ye go, ye shall not go empty ; but every 
woman shall borrow of her neighbor, and of her that 
sojourneth in her house, jewels of silver and jewels of 
gold, and raiment ; and ye shall put them upon your 
sons, and upon your daughters ; and ye shall spoil the 
Egyptians. . . . And they borrowed of the 
Egyptians jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and 
raiment. . . . And they spoiled the Egyp- 
tians.' 

" But in Lev. 19 : 13 ; and Ex. 20 : 15, the same God 
is reported to have said : — 

" ' Thou shalt not defraud thy neighbor, neither rob 
him. ..... Thou shalt not 

steal.' 

" Again, by the same God, slavery and oppression were 
ordained in a eurse ! Thus : 6 Cursed be Canaan ; a 
servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren' 
(Gen. 9: 25). Of the children of the strangers that do 
sojourn among you, of them shall ye buy. . . They 
shall be your bondmen forever ; but over your brethren 
of the children of Israel, ye shall not rule with rigor 
(Lev. 25 : 44, 49). I will sell your sons and daughters 
into the hands of the children of Judah, and they shall 
sell them to the Sabeans, to a people afar off; for the 
Lord hath spoken it (Joel 3:8). 

" But in other passages, by the same God, all slavery 
and oppression are positively and forever forbidden. 
Thus : ' Undo the heavy burdens. . . Let the 
oppressed go free. . . break every yoke. (Is. 
58 : 6.) Thou shalt neither vex a stranger, nor oppress 
him. (Ex. 22 : 21.) He that stealeth a man, and 



DEBATE ON THE BIBLE. 277 

selleth him, or if he be found in his hand, he shall 
surely be put to death ' (Ex. 21 : 16). 

"Neither be ye called masters (Mat. 23 : 10)." 

Again, the Lord is reported to have engaged in 
spreading falsehood among the people. Thus : " I will 
go forth and be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his 
prophets. And he said : Thou shalt persuade him and 
prevail also ; go forth and do so." (1 Kings 22 : 21, 
22.) 

But elsewhere the same Lord positively condemns 
lying. Thus: "Thou shalt not bear false witness 
(Ex. 20 : 16). Lying lips are an abomination to the 
Lord (Prov. 12: 22). All liars shall have their part 
in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone." 
(Eev. 21 : 8.) 

Again, God is reported to have considered hatred to 
kindred a part of religion. Thus : " If any man come 
unto me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, 
and children, and brother, and sisters, yea, and his own 
life also, he cannot be my disciple." (Luke 14 : 26.) 

But in other places we read that nothing can be more • 
wrong than this hatred to kindred. Thus ; " Honor 
thy father and mother. (Eph. 6 : 2.) Husbands, love 
your wives. . . . For no man ever yet hated his • 
own flesh. (Eph. 5 : 25, 29.) Whosoever hateth his 
brother is a murderer." (John 3 : 15.) 

Again, marriage is approved by God. Thus: "And 
the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should 
be alone : I will make an help-meet for him. (Gen. 2 : 
18.) Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth. 
(Gen. 1 : 28.) A man shall leave father and mother 
and shall cleave unto his wife." (Matt. 19 : 5.) 



278 THE AEAETJLA. 

But in other passages the same God, through Paul, 
says : " It is good for man not to touch a woman. (1 
Cor. 7:1.) For I would that all men were even as I 
myself. . . It is good for them if they abide even 
as I." (1 Cor. 7 : 7, 8.) 

Again, the Lord teaches the inferiority of woman to 
man, and denies to her the right to speak in public, or 
to be independent of her husband. Thus : " And thy 
desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over 
thee. (Gen. 3:16.) I suffer not a woman to teach, 
nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. 
(1 Tim. 2 : 12.) They are commanded to be under 
obedience, as also saith the law. (1 Cor. 14: 34.) 
Even as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him Lord." 
(1 Pet. 3 : 6.) 

But in other chapters the same Lord favors the supre- 
macy of woman, and compels her to appear and to 
speak in public. Thus : " And Deborah, a prophetess, 
judged Israel at that time . . And Deborah said unto 
Barak, Up, for this is the day in which the Lord hath 
delivered Sisera into thy hand . . And the Lord dis- 
comfited Sisera, and all his chariots, and all his host, 
with the edge of the sword before Barak." (Judges 
4 : 4, 14, 15.) The inhabitants of the village ceased ; 
they ceased in Israel, until I, Deborah, arose, a mother 
in Israel. (Judg. 5 : 7.) And on my handmaidens 1 
will pour out in those days my spirit, and they shall 
prophesy. (Acts 2 : 18.) And the same man had four 
daughters, virgins, which did prophesy." (Acts 21 : 9.) 

Again, the institution and observance of the Sabbath 
is thus set forth : " For in six days the Lord made 
heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and 



DEBATE OX THE BIBLE. 279 

rested on the seventh day ; wherefore the Lord blessed 
the Sabbath day and hallowed it. (Ex. 20 : 11.) Ke- 
member the Sabbath day to keep it holy." (Ex. 20 : 8.) 

But in other parts of the Bible the same God, through 
the Apostle Paul, considers the Sabbath of no account. 
Thus : " One man esteemeth one day above another; 
another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be 
fully persuaded in his own mind. (Bom. 14 : 5.) Let 
no man therefore judge you in meat and drink, or in 
respect of a holy day, or of the Sabbath days." (Col. 
2: 16.) 

Again, by command of God, no work should be done 
on the Sabbath under penalty of death. Thus : " Who- 
soever doeth any work on the Sabbath day, he shall 
surely be put to death. (Ex. 31 : 15.) And they found 
a man that gathered sticks upon the Sabbath day . . 
And all the congregation brought him without the 
camp and stoned him." 

But in John 5 : 16 it is recorded that the same God 
was himself disregarding the Sabbath. Thus : " There- 
fore did the Jews persecute Jesus, and sought to slay 
him, because he had done these things on the Sabbath 
day." And the case is thus stated : " At that time 
Jesus went on the Sabbath day through the corn ; and 
his disciples were a hungered, and began to pluck the 
ears of corn, and to eat. But when the Pharisees saw 
it they said unto him, Behold, thy disciples do that 
which is not lawful to do upon the Sabbath day. But 
he said unto them, . . Have ye not read in the law, how 
that on the Sabbath days the priests in the temple pro- 
fane the Sabbath, and are blameless ?" (Matt. 12:1, 
2, 3, 5.) 



280 THE AEABTJLA. 

Again, in Matt. 6 : 13, the God of Heaven is thus 
addressed in prayer : "Lead us not into temptation." 
But the same Lord elsewhere is called a tempter. Thus : 
" And it came to pass after these things, that God did 
tempt Abraham." (Gen. 22 : 1.) And yet, in the same 
volume we read : " Let no man say when he is tempted, 
I am tempted of God; for God cannot be tempted 
with evil, neither tempteth he any man." (James 
1: 13.) 

Again, in one place (Heb. 6: 18) we read: "It is 
impossible for God to lie." But in another place it is 
said : " For this cause God shall send them strong 
delusion, that they should believe a lie." (2 Thes. 
2: 11.) 

Again, in Matt. 19 : 26, we are told by one of the super- 
naturally inspired penmen that " With God all things 
are possible;" and elsewhere that he is all-powerful, 
thus : " Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh ; is 
there any thing too hard for me ?" (Jer. 32 : 27.) 

But in the forepart of the Bible you will find the fol- 
lowing curious contradictory passage : " And the Lord 
was with Judah, and he drave out the inhabitants of 
the mountain ; but could not drive out the inhabitants 
of the valley, because they had chariots of iron." (Judg. 
i: 19.) 

Again, it is unqualifiedly said : " No man hath seen 
God at any time. (John 1 : 18.) Ye have neither 
heard his voice, at any time, nor seen his shape." (John 
5 : 37.) 

But the same God said unto Moses : " And I will 
take away my hand, and thou shalt see my back parts. 
(Ex. 33 : 23.) And the Lord spake to Moses face to 



DEBATE OX THE BIBLE. 281 

face, as a man speaketh to his friend. (Ex. 33: 11.) 
And the Lord called unto Adam, and said unto him, 
Where art thou ? And he said, I heard thj voice in 
the garden, and I was afraid. (Gen. 3 : 9, 10.) For I 
have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved." 
(Gen. 32 : 30.) 

Again, in one place I read that God is perfectly satis- 
fied with his works. Thus : " And God saw everything 
that he had made, and behold it was very good.'' (Gen. 
1 : 31.) 

But in the sixth chapter and sixth verse of the same 
book, I read : " And it repented the Lord that he had 
made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his 
heart." 

Again, I read in the following passages that signs, 
wonders, and miracles are a proof of divine mission 
or supernatural power : " Xow when John had heard 
in the prison the works of Christ, he sent two of his 
disciples, and said unto him, Art thou he that should 
come, or do we look for another ? Jesus answered and 
said unto them, Go and show John again those things 
which ye do hear and see ; the blind receive their sight, 
and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf 
hear, the dead are raised. (Matt. 11 : 2-5.) Rabbi, 
we know that thou art a teacher come from God ; for 
no man can do these miracles that thou doest except God 
be with him. (John 3 : 2.) And Israel saw that great 
work which the Lord did upon the Egyptians ; and 
the people feared the Lord, and believed the Lord, and 
his servant Moses." (Ex. 1-1 : 31.) 

But elsewhere I read that signs, wonders, and mira- 
cles, are not only no evidence, but are absolutely con- 



282 THE AEABULA. 

demned, or are considered of little account. Thus : 
" And Aaron cast down his rod before Pharaoh, and 
before his servants, and it became a serpent. Then 
Pharaoh also called the wise men and the sorcerers ; 
now the magicians of Egypt, they also did in like man- 
ner with, their enchantments, for they cast down every 
man his rod, and they became serpents. (Ex. 7 : 10- 
12.) If there arise among you a prophet, or a 
dreamer of dreams, and giveth thee a sign or a wonder, 
and the sign or the wonder come to pass wherein he 
spake unto thee, saying, Let us go after other gods which 
thou hast not known, and let us serve them, thou shalt 
not hearken unto the words of that prophet or that 
dreamer of dreams. (Deut. 13 : 1-3.) If I by Beelze- 
bub cast out devils, by whom do your sons cast them 
out ?" (Luke 11 : 19). 

Again, in 2 Tim. 3 : 16, I read the affirmation that 
all scripture is inspired: " All scripture is given by 
inspiration of God." " But I speak this by permission 
and not by commandment." (1 Cor. 7-6.) But Paul, 
one of God's inspired writers, who wrote the most pop- 
ular parts of the ~New Testament, said : " But to the 
rest speak I, not the Lord. (1 Cor. 7 : 12.) That which 
I speak, I speak it not after the Lord" (2 Cor. 11 : 17.) 

" For Heaven's sake !" I exclaimed, " do not quote an- 
other passage ; I am dreadfully tired ; and, besides, I can- 
not see what more you can possibly say on the subject." 

" What more ! What more ! Why, man alive, you 
have not heard a twentieth part of the absurdities 
and inconsistencies and errors of history, of. fact, of 
morals, of doctrines, of principles, &c, which I found 
in the Bible upon thorough investigation." 



DEBATE ON THE BIBLE. 283 

" But," said I, " why did you not find out all these 
contradictions before you entered the ministry ?" 

a Oh, I studied the Bible with the eyes of other men — 
that's the reason why. Dr. Clark's commentary, and 
the writings of the Christian philosophers and other 
Bible believers, were the spectacles I wore when study- 
ing for the pulpit profession." 

" If yon have any thing further — that is, if yon have 
facts and conclusions condensed and nnderstandable by 
the common intellect — I will patiently give another 
hour to the subject." 

" Well, then, with your permission I will read from 
a certain 'Discussion' — which shall be nameless — the 
objections of skeptics to the popular doctrine that the 
Testaments are plenariiy inspired, and leave to you to 
jndge whether we have any just grounds for skepticism. 

I. We know that hooka generally are the productions 
of men, and it is natural to conclude that all books are 
so, the Bible included, till proof is given to the con- 
trary. 

We know of no proof to the contrary. We can find 
neither internal nor external evidence that the Bible 
had any higher origin than other books, or that it is 
entitled to any higher authority. We have examined 
what has been brought forward as proof of the super- 
human origin and divine authority of the Bible, but 
have fonnd it, as we think, wanting. 

II. Even our opponents, who believe in the divine 
origin of the Bible, do not believe in the divine origin 
of the books deemed sacred by other people. They 
smile at the credulity of the Mohammedan, who believes 
in the superhuman origin of the Koran ; they are even 



284 THE AKA.BULA. 

disposed to scold the Latter-Day Saint, for believing 
in the superhuman origin of the Book of Mormon. 

They are sure the Turk and the Latter-Day Saint 
are in error. We are confident that our opponents 
themselves are iu error. They have hardly patience to 
read the arguments of Mohammedans and Mormonites 
in behalf of their Bibles. We have read to some extent 
the arguments of all, and found them all equally unsat- 
isfactory. 

III. We have, as we think, proof that the Bible is 
not of divine origin — proof, instead, that it is of human 
origin. 

1. The Bible in common use is a translation, made 
by men as liable to err as ourselves ; men who did err,, 
grievously. The translation bears marks of their lia- 
bility to err on almost every page. 

2. The Christian world bears witness to the imperfec- 
tions of the translation, by its demand for new and bet- 
ter translations. No sect is satisfied with it. Many of 
the. sects have made new translations. 

The Greek and Hebrew scriptures, of which the 
translators profess the common English Bible to be a 
translation, were compiled by men, weak and erring 
like ourselves, and they, too, are acknowledged to bear 
the marks of human imperfection and error. 

3. The Greek and Hebrew Bibles were compiled 
from pre existing manuscripts. Those manuscripts are 
human transcripts of still earlier manuscripts, which 
are also human transcripts. Those manuscripts are all 
imperfect. They differ from each other. The manu- 
scripts of the New Testament, alone, differ in more 
than 150,000 places. 



DEBATE OX THE BIBLE. 285 

4. The originals are lost — the manuscripts cannot, 
therefore, be compared with them. ]STo means remain 
of ascertaining which is least corrupted. A perfect 
Bible, therefore — a Bible thoroughly divine — a Bible 
free from error and uncertainty, is a thing no more to 
be hoped for, even supposing such a Bible once existed. 
But there is no evidence that such a book ever did 
exist. If, therefore, we had the originals, there is no 
reason to believe that we should find them less imper- 
fect, less erroneous, than our common translations. We 
have, therefore, to do chiefly with the contents of the 
common version. These contents furnish internal evi- 
dence, evidence the most decisive, that the Bible, like 
other books, is the work of erring and imperfect men. 
To this " internal " evidence we call attention. . . 

The form, the arrangement, the language, the style 
of the different portions of the Bible are all manifestly 
human. The Grammar, the Logic, the Rhetoric, the 
Poetry, all bear marks of human weakness. We see 
nothing " supernatural " anywhere in the book, but 
human imperfection and error we see everywhere. 

But the moral, theological, and philosophical portions 
of the Bible have the principal claim on our attention, 
and on these we should chiefly dwell. We can see no 
traces of any thing more than human in the morality, 
theology, or philosophy of the Bible ; but the plainest 
traces of imperfect humanity. 

Bishop Watson, in his letters to Thomas Paine, has 
these words: "An honest man, sincere in his en- 
deavors to search out truth, in reading the Bible, would 
examine, first, whether the Bible attributed to the Su- 
preme Being any atlribute repugnant to holiness, truth, 



286 THE AEABULA. 

justice, goodness-; whether it represented him as subject 
to human infirmities." — Bishop Watson, p. 114. 

We have followed out this course, and will now state 
the result. We find that the Bible does represent God 
as subject to human infirmities, and that it does attrib- 
ute to him attributes repugnant to holiness, truth, jus- 
tice, ancl goodness. 

1. It represents God as subject to human infir- 
mities. It represents him as having a "body, subject 
to wants and weaknesses like those of our own selves. 
When he appears to Abraham, he appears, according 
to the Bible, in three men. These three talk to Abra- 
ham. Abraham kills for them a calf, Sarah bakes 
them some bread, and they eat and drink. They wash 
their feet, soiled with their journey, and sit down to 
rest themselves under a tree. God is also represented 
as appearing to Jacob in the form of a man. He 
wrestles with Jacob all night. Jacob is too strong for 
him. He wants to go, but Jacob holds him fast. Jacob 
demands a blessing, and refuses to let go his hold of the 
Deity, till he obtains it. God, unable to free himself 
from Jacob's grasp, is forced, at length, to yield to his 
demand, and give him a blessing. He accordingly 
changes Jacob's name to Israel, which means the God- 
conqueror — the man who vanquished God in a wrestling 
match. In other parts of the book, God is represented 
as tired and exhausted with the six days' work of crea- 
tion, and as resting on the seventh day. In Exodus 31 : 
17, it is said that on the seventh day God rested, and 
was refreshed. In Judges 1 : 19, God is represented as 
unable to vanquish some of the inhabitants of Canaan, 
because they had chariots of iron. " And the Lord 



DEBATE ON THE BIBLE. 287 

was with Judah ; and he drove out the inhabitants of 
the mountains ; but could not drive out the inhabitants 
of the valley, because they had chariots of iron." 

2. God is further represented in the Bible as limited 
in knowledge. He did not know whether Abraham 
feared him or not, till he had tried him by commanding 
him to offer his son as a burnt-offering. But when 
Abraham had bound his son, and lifted up the knife to 
take his life, God is represented as saying : u JVoio 
I know thou fearest me ; since thou hast not withheld 
thy son, thine only son, from me." He is also repre- 
sented as having to use similar means with the Israelites 
to find out how they were disposed toward him. In one 
place he is said to try them by false prophets and 
dreamers, to know whether they loved the Lord their 
God with all their heart, (Deut. 13 : 3.) In another 
he is said to have led them forty years in the wilderness 
to prove them, to know what was in their heart, and to 
find out whether they would keep his commandments 
or not. (8 : 2.) One passage represents him as putting 
the rainbow in the clouds to aid his memory — that he 
might look on it, and remember his engagement never 
again to destroy the world by a flood. 

3. Other passages of scripture represent God as both 
limited in knowledge or limited in his presence — as 
dwelling somewhere aloft and apart from mankind — as 
receiving his information respecting the doings of men 
through agents or messengers, in whom he could not 
put confidence at all times, and as being obliged at 
times to come down and see for himself how things 
were going on. In Genesis 11 : 5, we read: "And 
the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which 



288 THE ARABULA. 

the children of men builded.' So with regard to Sodom 
and Gomorrah, we read, Genesis 18 : 20-21 : "And the 
Lord said, because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is 
great, and because their sin is very grievous, I will go 
down now, and see whether they have done altogether 
according to the cry of it, which is come unto me : and 
if not, I will know." In all these passages, God is sup- 
posed to be subject to the same or similar limitations 
with ourselves. 

The Bible further represents God as changeable, as 
repenting of his own doing. In one passage we are 
told that it repented him that he had made man, when 
he saw how badly he had turned out ; and in another, 
that he repented of having made Saul king, for a similar 
reason. In many passages he is represented as being 
disappointed in men, and as repenting of the good he 
had promised them, or the evil with which he had 
threatened them. 

5. The Bible gives still darker representations of 
God. It presents him to our view as subject not only 
to innocent human weaknesses, but to the most criminal 
and revolting vices. It represents him as partial in his 
affections and dealing toward his children. He is 
charged with a kind of partiality, which, in a human 
father, would be deemed most unreasonable and inex- 
cusable. He is said to have loved Jacob and hated Esau 
before either of them were born, and before either of them 
had done either good or evil. Thus we read, Rom. 
9:11-13: "For the children being not yet born, 
neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose 
of God, according to election, might stand, not of works, 
but of him that calleth ; it was said unto her, The elder 



DEBATE ON" THE BIBLE. 289 

shall serve the younger: as it is written, Jacob have I 
loved, but Esau have I hated." Some tell us that the 
Hebrew word translated ( hate J means only to Hove 
less.'' Suppose it does, it is still partiality to love one 
child less than another, before the children are born, or 
have done any thing to deserve peculiar love or hato, 
But the hatred here spoken of is something more than 
a less degree of love ; it is positive ill-will, malignity, 
real deadly hate. Hear how Malachi expresses it. 
Malachi 1 : 2-4: "I have loved you, saith the Lord. 
Yet ye say, wherein hast thou loved us? Was not 
Esau Jacob's brother? saith the Lord: yet I loved 
Jacob, and I hated Esau, and laid his mountains and 
his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness. 
Whereas Edom saith, We are impoverished, but we will 
return and build the desolate places; thus saith the 
Lord of hosts, They shall build, but I will throw down ; 
and they shall call them, The border of wickedness, 
and, The people against whom the Lord hath indigna- 
tion forever." More cruel or deadly hate, a* fiercer or 
more unrelenting cruelty, cannot be conceived. God 
is further represented as caring more for the Israelites 
than for any other people. He is represented as very 
much concerned for the health, the holiness, and the 
happiness of Israel ; but as utterly careless what be- 
comes of the rest of the world. Hence, he is repre- 
sented as telling the Jews that they must not eat the 
flesh of any animal that dieth of itself, but that they 
may give it or sell it to the stranger. They must not 
run the risk of poisoning themselves, but they may 
poison as many others as they please. They are not to 
take usury for money of one another, but they may 
13 



290 THE AKABULA. 

take it of others. They are not to hold each other as 
bondmen or bondwomen fWmore than six years at a 
time ; nor are they to rale any of their brethren when 
in bondage with rigor : but they may hold the people 
of other nations as bondmen forever ; take them and 
use them as property, buy them or sell them at pleasure; 
rule over them with rigor, and hand them down to 
their children as an inheritance forever. 

6. Other passages represent God as grossly unjust 
and implacably revengeful. He is represented as 
punishing the innocent offspring for the sins of the 
parents — as visiting the sins of idolaters on their 
children — to the third and fourth generation. The 
sons and grandsons of Saul, to the number of seven, 
were hanged before the Lord, because Saul, many years 
before, had done wrong to the Gideonites. After this 
revolting butchery, the Bible says the Lord was en- 
treated for the land. (2 Sam. 21 : 1-14.) Because 
David did wrong in the case of Uriah, God is repre- 
sented as* saying, " The sword shall never depart from 
thine house." The sinner himself is spared, but his 
innocent child dies for his sin. Seventy sons of Ahab 
are beheaded for the sins of their parents. The prophet 
of God is represented as commanding their destruction. 
2 Kings 9 : 10 : " The whole house of Ahab shall perish," 
saith the Lord, according to the prophet. God is repre- 
sented as demanding the destruction of whole nations, 
for sins committed by their forefathers many genera- 
tions before. He is represented as commanding Saul- to 
destroy the Amalekites — to destroy them utterly — for 
a sin, if sin it was, said to have been committed by 
their ancestors, more than four hundred years before. 



DEBATE OX THE BIBLE. 291 

Hear the passage. It is in 1 Samuel, 15: 1-3: 
"Samuel also said unto Saul, the Lord sent me to 
anoint thee to be king over his people, over Israel ; 
now, therefore, hearken thou unto the voice of the word 
of the Lord. Thus saith the Lord of hosts, I remember 
that which Amalek did to Israel, how he laid wait for 
him in the way, when he came up from Egypt. E"ow 
go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they 
have, and spare them not ; but slay both man and 
woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and 
ass." Saul went, it is said, and slew the Amalekites. 
He utterly destroyed all the people with the edge of 
the sword. He, however, spared Agag, the king, and 
some of the cattle, and so angry is God at this, that he 
repents of having made Saul king. Samuel takes Agag 
and hews him in pieces before the Lord, to prevent his 
wrath from consuming him. These are horrible and 
blasphemous stories. But they are not the worst. The 
Bible represents God as cursing, and as dooming to 
pain and agony, to servitude and death, whole races of 
his creatures, throughout all lands, and throughout all 
ages, for the sin of one individual. It represents him 
as cursing all serpents, making them cursed above all 
cattle, dooming them to go on their belly and eat dust, 
and putting enmity in men's hearts toward them, 
because one solitary serpent tempted Eve. It repre- 
sents him as dooming all women, throughout all ages 
and all nations, to great and multiplied pains and sor- 
rows, and making them all subject to the will of their 
husbands, because Ece did wrong, before any other 
woman existed. It also represents God as cursing the 
earth for the sin of one man ; cursing it to bring forth 



292 THE AEABULA. 

thorns and thistles to annoy all future generations ; 
dooming all mankind, throughout all lands and through- 
out all ages, to eat of the ground in sorrow all the days 
of their life ; to eat the herb of the field ; to eat their 
bread with the sweat of their brow ; and lastly, to 
return to the dust. The thought is appalling. Count- 
less millions mercilessly doomed to daily and hopeless 
misery, and then to death, for sins committed before 
any of them were born ! As if this blasphemy were 
not enough, our Orthodox opponents assure us that the 
death here threatened was the death of the soul as well 
as the body, or the consignment of both to eternal tor- 
ments in hell. The posterity of Ham are doomed to 
servitude through all the ages of time, for an alleged 
offense of Ham. The rest of mankind are, of course, 
doomed to slaveholding. The Israelites are destroyed 
with pestilence for the sin of David, and even David is 
said to have been moved by God himself to do the deed, 
for which the people were destroyed. The case of 
David deserves to be given at length. It is one of the 
most astounding, revolting, and blasphemous stories in 
the whole Bible. You may find it in 2 Samuel, 24: 
1, 10 : " And again the anger of the Lord was kindled 
against Israel, and he moved David against them to say, 
Go, number Israel and Judah. And David's heart smote 
him after that he had numbered the people. And 
David said unto the Lord, I have sinned greatly in 
that I have done ; and now, I beseech thee, O Lord, 
take away the iniquity of thy servant ; for I have done 
very foolishly." It seems strange that bis heart should 
smite him for doing as God prompted him to do, and 
that he should charge himself with acting foolishly in 



DEBATE ON THE BIBLE. 293 

yielding to God's impulse. But perhaps lie was not 
then aware that it was God that made him do the deed. 
God probably kept his part in the matter a secret. 
Still, the account has a horrible look. " However, 
when David was up in the morning, the word of the 
Lord came unto the prophet Gad, David's seer, say- 
ing, Go and say unto David, thus saith the Lord, I offer 
thee three things ; choose thee one of them, that I may do 
it unto thee. So Gad came to David, and told him, 
and said unto him, Shall seven years of famine come 
unto thee in thy land ? or wilt thou flee three months 
before thine enemies, while they pursue thee ? or that 
there be three days' pestilence in thy land ? Now 
advise, and see what answer I shall return to him that 
sent me. And David said, unto Gad, I am in a great 
strait ; let us fall now into the hand of the Lord, for his 
mercies are great, and let me not fall into the hand of 
man. So the Lord sent a pestilence upon Israel, from 
the morning even to the time appointed ; and there 
died of the people, from Dan even to Beer-sheba, 
seventy thousand men. And when the angel stretched 
out his hand upon Jerusalem to destroy it, the Lord 
repented him of the evil, and said to the angel that 
destroyed the people, It is enough ; stay now thy 
hand. And the angel of the Lord was by the thresh- 
ing-place of Araunah, the Jebusite. And David spake 
unto the Lord, when he saw the angel that smote the 
people, and said, Lo, I have sinned, and I have done 
wickedly; but these sheep, whatvhave they done? 
Let thine hand, I pray thee, be against me, and against 
my father's house." The story bewilders us with its 
horrors. The sinner is spared, while seventy thousand 



294 THE AEABULA. 

innocents are destroyed. The sinner, we say. But 
who is the sinner ? Is it a sin to do as God prompts us 
to do? The only sinner, according to the story, is God 
himself. Both David and his slaughtered people are vic- 
tims to the unmerited anger of the great transgressor and 
destroyer. The blasphemy of the passage is truly horrible. 
7. If possible, the Bible represents God in still darker 
colors. It attributes to him the direst cruelties — the 
most savage and revolting butcheries. Here is a story 
from Numbers 31 : 1-7, 9, 15.-18 : " And the Lord spake 
unto Moses, saying, Avenge the children of Israel of 
the Midianites : afterward shalt thou be gathered unto 
thy people. And Moses spake unto the people, say- 
ing, Arm some of yourselves unto the war, and let them 
go against the Midianites, and avenge the Lord of 
Midian. Of every tribe a thousand, throughout all the 
tribes of Israel, shall ye send to the war. So there were 
delivered out of the thousands of Israel, a thousand of 
every tribe, twelve thousand armed for war. And 
Moses sent them to the war, a thousand of every tribe, 
them and Phinehas, the son of Eleazar the priest, to 
the war, with the holy instruments, and the trumpets 
to blow in his hand. And they warred against the 
Midianites, as the Lord commanded Moses ; and they 
slew all the males. And the children of Israel took 
all the women of Midian captives, and their little ones, 
and took the spoil of all their cattle, and all their flocks, 
and all their goods. And Moses said unto them, Have 
ye saved all the woman alive? Behold, these caused 
the children of Israel, through the counsel of Balaam, 
to commit trespass against the Lord in the matter of 
Peor, and there was a plague among the congregation 



DEBATE ON THE BIBLE. 295 

of the Lord. Now, therefore, kill every male among 
the little ones, and kill every woman that hath known 
man by lying with him. But all the women-children 
that have not known a man by lying with him keep 
alive for yourselves." And the helpless women and the 
innocent children, even to the suckling born but yes- 
terday, are all butchered. The exhausted mother, with 
her new-born babe on her breast, are slaughtered 
together without mercy ; and the young untarnished 
daughters are given to the butchers of their fathers, 
their mothers, and their brothers. And neither God 
nor his prophet sheds a tear, or utters a word of regret 
or sorrow. And these the Bible represents as the 
doings of God ! 

In Joshua tenth and eleventh, we have a long list 
of such horrors. Joshua is represented as going forth 
under the command of God, and slaying men and 
women, children and sucklings without number, utterly 
destroying whole nations. His warriors put their feet 
on the necks of vanquished kings, then Joshua smites 
them, and hangs them on five trees. lie slays the 
people with a vevj great slaughter. Even the sun and 
moon are made to stand still, until he makes the ruin 
complete. He takes city after city ; smites them with 
the edge of the sword ; utterly destroying all the souls 
therein — letting none remain. The Lord, it is said, 
delivered them into his hands. " So Joshua smote all 
the country of the hills, and of the South, and of the 
vale, and of the springs, and all their kings ; he left 
none remaining, but utterly destroyed all that breathed, 
as the Lord God of Israel commanded." Then follows 
another string of horrible tragedies ; whole nations, 



296 THE ARABTTLA. 

numbers of nations, all slaughtered ; not one poor soul 
allowed to remain alive throughout their vast extent; 
and all is fathered on God. And now come other, 
longer, and more frightful lists of tragic and revolting 
deeds. Cities and nations, kings and people, men and 
women, old and young, all swept away. Not one is 
left to breathe. All, all are slaughtered, as the Lord 
commanded Moses. " There was not a city that made 
peace with the children of Israel save the Hivites," 
says the story. ' Ah ! that explains the matter," says 
the believer. " Their destruction is chargeable on 
themselves if they would not make peace." What! 
must the women and children perish, because the rulers 
and the warriors refuse to make peace ? But hark ! the 
story adds : u Not a city made peace, for it was of the 
Lord to harden their hearts that they should come 
against Israel in battle, that he might destroy them 
utterly / that they might have no favor , but that, he 
might destroy them, as the Lord commanded Moses." 
No book can give the Deity a darker character than 
this. None can throw out against him more atrocious 
blasphemies. Yet the book abounds in such stories. 

God is said to have hardened Pharaoh's heart, that 
he might not let the children of Israel go, but bring 
down on his people, the innocent as well as the guilty, 
the most grievous plagues, including the destruction of 
the first-born in every family in the land. Of course 
we do not believe those stories; Ave regard them as 
false ; but the blasphemy is none the less. 

Then look at the story of the flood. God is repre- 
sented as dooming to destruction the whole human race, 
with the exception of a single family. True, the story 



DEBATE ON THE BIBLE. 297 

tells us man was very corrupt ; but were all corrupt % 
Were there no good men ? Were there ho stainless 
women ? Xo innocent children? Were all so lost to 
virtue as to be past hope ? Impossible ! Bnt, supposing 
the degeneracy universal, is utter and unsparing destruc- 
tion the only alternative ? And shall the whole race 
be swept away without one word of pity, or one sign 
of sorrow or regret ? It is thus the Bible represents 
the matter. The blasphemy could not be greater. 
Nothing worse can be attributed to God than what the 
Bible attributes to him. Nothing worse can be con- 
ceived. 

8. The Bible represents God as demanding or accept- 
ing human sacrifices. It represents him as commanding 
Abraham to offer up his son Isaac as a burnt-offering, 
though the sacrifice was not completed. In 2 Samuel 
21 : 1-14, a sacrifice is demanded and made. The story 
is as follows: "Then there was a famine in the days 
of David three years, year after year ; and David 
inquired of the Lord. And the Lord answered, It is 
for Saul and his bloody house, because he slew the 
Gibeonites. Wherefore David said unto the Gibeonites, 
What shall I do for you \ and wherewith shall I make 
the atonement, that ye may bless the inheritance of the 
Lord ? And the Gibeonites said unto him, We will 
have no silver nor gold of Saul, nor of his house ; neither 
for us shalt thou kill any man in Israel. And he said, 
What ye shall say, that will I do for you. And they 
answered the king, The man that consumed us, and 
that devised against us that we should be destroyed from 
remaining in any of the coasts of Israel, Let seven men 
of his sons be delivered unto us, and we will hang them 

13* 



298 THE AEABTJLA. 

up unto the Lord in Gibeah of Saul, whom the Lord 
did choose. And the king said, I will give them. But 
the king spared Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan, the 
son of Saul, because of the Lord's oath that was between 
them, between David and Jonathan the son of Saul. 
Eut the king took the two sons of Rizpah, the daughter 
of Aiah, whom she bare unto Saul, Armoni and 
Mephibosheth ; and the five sons of Michal, the daugh- 
ter of Saul, whom she brought up for Adriel, the son 
of Barzillai the Meholathite. And he delivered them 
into the hands of the Gibeonites, and they hanged them 
in the hill before the Lord ; and they fell all seven 
together, and were put to death in the days of harvest, 
in the first days, in the beginning of barley -harvest. 
And Rizpah, the daughter of Aiah, took sackcloth, 
and spread it for her upon the rock, from the beginning 
of harvest until water dropped upon them out of heaven, 
and suffered neither the birds of the air to rest on them 
by day, nor the beasts of the field by night." 

" There !" said he, "I think the subject might be 
left right here. Of course there are ' doctrinal points ' 
which might be debated. For example, take the doc- 
trine of the Trinity : One God in three persons; three 
persons, each person God, and yet not three Gods. The 
first person is the father of the second, and the third 
proceeds from the father and the son, yet neither is 
before or after the other. All are of one age. The son 
is as old as Ids father, and the grandson is as old as 
either. The first of these persons demands satisfaction 
for man's sins ; the others do not, though they are all 
one God. The second becomes man, suffers and dies ; 
the others do not. The united Godhead and manhead 



DEBATE OX THE BIBLE. 299 

are crucified and buried ; go into liell ; rise again from 
the grave on the third day. These are not a tenth part 
of the absurdities of this doctrine. The doctrines of 
original sin, the atonement, imputed guilt and imputed 
righteousness, justification by Christ's merits, &c, are 
as foolish, as absurd, as monstrous, as blasphemous, and 
as mischievous as any that can be found." 

Several minutes passed in utter silence — I, reflecting 
on the influence of his criticisms on superstitious Bible - 
believers — he, watching the effect of his text and argu- 
ments upon my mind. And I reflected thus: The 
Bible, considered externally, is, like every other material 
book or form of matter, possessed of the properties of 
change, decay, contradiction, and darkness. The Bible 
is only a book compounded of changeable, fleeting 
elements ; and this mutability is as true of its contents 
as of the paper, ink, and binding. But do not all 
books, as well as other forms of matter, proceed from 
spiritual fountains of causation % Are not material 
forms the mere shadows of interior harmonious prin- 
ciples? With earthly eyes we see externals; whilst 
with spirit eyes we see the interior sense and harmony. 
But did not every thing originate in the spiritual 
sources % The poet meant this when he said — 

" We do not make our thoughts ; they grow in us 
Like grains in wood ; the growth is of the skies ; 
The skies are of nature : nature is of God." 

Yiewed from this central stand-point, may not all re- 
ligious discourses and sacred books contain spiritual 
gospels % Why may not the sacred works of all nations 
be the coverings and viaducts of God's momentous 



&G0 THE AEABTTLA. 

truths to man? The laws of inspiration must be uni- 
versal, and without variableness or shadow of turning ; 
therefore that law, which demonstrates the Christian's 
Bible to be interiorly divine and authoritative, will 
apply, with equal consistency and cogency, to all sacred 
books of every other age or people. 

At length, turning to the visitor, I remarked : " With 
you, sir, I have no belief in the miraculous origin or 
supernatural inspiration of any book or writing ; neither 
do I think well of any priestly authority that is predi- 
cated on such false assumptions ; but yet, unlike you, I 
discern in all interiorly written books, here and there, 
the glorious presence of Ardbula ! the lifting Light of 
divine Truth ! shining and streaming through them all, 
as the sunlight of high heaven pours itself through the 
forest and flowers of nature ; and to-morrow, if you will 
have the kindness to call upon me, I think I can fur- 
nish, for your special edification, passages of consistent 
and beautiful Scripture, taken from the uncanonized, 
but none the less real, Saints of past and present 
times." 

He promised to give me his candid attention, as I had 
patiently given him mine, and so on the best of terms 
we parted. 






NEW COLLECTION OF GOSPELS. 301 



CHAPTEE L. 

NEW COLLECTION OF GOSPELS. 

Hail ! gladdening Light of Arabula, thou beautiful 
and bountiful giver of joys unspeakable ! I follow thee 
where'er thou lead'st ; and, where thou goest I will go ; 
for my inmost nature knows that thou art the " light 
which lighteth every man that cometh into the world." 

O, sacred Fire ! blazing broad and high, " a consum- 
ing fire," beautiful and without vengeance, but power- 
fully armed with unchangeable Justice, perpetually 
naming from the infinite heart of Love. O, pure, 
lambent Light ! burning the roots and branches of all 
sin, and ignorance, and prejudice ; and purifying all 
things, like " the refiner's fire," and separating the pure 
from the dross — the Light ! who maketh seers of the 
poor and blind ; who findeth saints among the so-called 
evil ; who maketh the tongues of fools to confound the 
wise ; who bringeth Prophets and Apostles out of dark- 
ness; who unfoldeththe heavens to the gaze of uncount- 
ed millions — unto Thee I come with open and beam- 
ing eyes, with a grateful heart, with an unprejudiced 
intellect, with reverential love for thy commandments, 
and unto Thee most gladly would I bring my patient, 
attentive, friendly reader. Take this earnest soul, 
whose wide-open eyes now tenderly dwell upon these 
sentences, and pour thy holy fire into the waiting 



302 THE ABABULA. 

intellect and sweet affections. Cause the reader's 
understanding to turn away from the prejudices of both 
association and memory. Expand and open the higher 
powers of mind, so that they shall magnetically lift 
the Intellect into the iu dependent clairvoyance of the 
" superior condition," in~which state alone can the pure 
impersonal principles of the Eternal be discerned by 
the reason, and their benefits taken like celestial food 
into the hungering affections. 

Where art thou, patient Reader? Arabula says, 
"It is I, be not afraid." Courage, then, and tell, 
candidly, just where you are. Can you reason calmly 
and meditate, now, without " the heat of passion " and 
blindness of prejudice ? Are you clear-sighted now, 
and can you " look truth in the face," and loyally say, 
" Lead on ! I will follow Thee ?" If you are still and 
exclusively under the " light of the Intellect," then you 
have pride and prejudices to intercept your progression 
in wisdom. Arabula knows no meum et tuum, for she 
is free from prejudice as " truth makes free," whilst 
Intellect, having all its eyes upon the world, the flesh, 
and the fleeting advantages thereof,. gives nothing but 
obstacles. 

SeneCa, the truly moral philosopher, who lived at 
the beginning of the Christian era, said : "It is with 
most men as with an innocent that my father had in his 
family. One day she fell blind on a sudden, but nobody 
could persuade her that she was blind. * I cannot endure 
the house,' she cried, ' it is so dark, so dark !' and so, 
fancying that it was light in the world without, she kept 
calling for liberty to go abroad." Thus it is with the 
blindest persons in the religious world — they fancy the 



NEW COLLECTION OF GOSPELS. 



303 



darkness is in others, or possibly in their own circum- 
stances, but never, O, no ! never in themselves. 

A new collection of Gospels is now imperatively 
demanded in the cause and interest of truth. With the 
light of Arabula before you, like a " pillar of fire," show- 
ing the path through the darkness of ignorance, you can 
see the footprints of the everlasting God through all the 
sacred writings of every age and people. Only the 
proud and prejudiced — only the ignorant and supersti- 
tious — are shut out of this beautiful and beneficent 
garden. Come, reader, let us enter and read. 



THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO 



EISHIS, OK ANCIENT SAINTS 



CHAPTER I. 

The Yedas are the Scriptures of the de- 
vout -people of the, Orient. The follow- 
ing passages declare the presence of 
the divine light in a very dark era of 
history. All Scripture-writing is 
given by inspiration. 

ANY place where the mind of 
man can be undisturbed, is 
suitable for the worship of the 
Supreme Being. 

2 The vulgar look for their gods 
in water ; the ignorant think they 
reside in wood, bricks-, and stones ; 
men of more extended knowledge 
seek them in celestial orbs ; but 
wise men worship the Universal 
Soul. 

B Th?re is One living and true 
God ; everlasting, without parts or 
passion ; of infinite power, wisdom. 



and goodness ; the Maker and Pre- 
server of all things. 

4 What and how the Supreme 
Being is, cannot be ascertained. 
We can only . describe him by his 
effects and works. In like manner 
as we, not knowing the real nature 
of the sun, explain him to be the 
cause of the succession of days and 
epochs. 

5 That Spirit who is distinct from 
Matter, and from all beings con- 
tained in Matter, is not various. 
He is One, and he is beyond de- 
scription ; whose glory is so great, 
there can be no image of him. He 
is the incomprehensible Spirit, who 
illuminates all, and delights all ; 
from whom all proceed, by whom 
they live after they are born, and 
to whom all must return. Nothing 



304: 



THE AEABULA. 



but the Supreme Being should be 
adored by a wise man. 

6 He overspreads all creatures. 
He is entirely Spirit, without the 
form either of a minute body, or an 
extended one, which is liable to 
impression or organization. He is 
the ruler of the intellect, self- 
existent, pure, perfect, omniscient, 
and omnipresent. He has from all 
eternity been assigning to all 
creatures their respective purposes. 
No vision can approach him, no 
language describe him, no intel- 
lectual power can comprehend 
him. 

7 As a thousand rays emanate 
from one flame, thus do all souls 
emanate from The One Eternal 
Soul, and return to him. 

8 The Supreme Soul dwells in 
the form of four-footed animals, and 
in another place he is full of glory. 
He lives in the form of the slave, 
he is smaller than the grain of 
barley. He is the smallest of the 
small, and the greatest of the 
great ; jet he is neither small nor 
great. 

9 Without hand nor foot, he runs 
rapidly and grasps firmly ; without 
eyes, he sees all ; without ears, he 
hears all. He knows whatever can 
be known ; but there is none who 
knows him. The wise call him the 
Great, Supreme, Pervading Spirit. 

10 lie who considers all beings 
as existing in the Supreme Spirit, 
and the Supreme Spirit as pervad- 
ing all beings, cannot view with 
contempt any creature whatsoever. 

11 God has created the senses to 
be directed toward external objects. 
They can perceive only these 
objects, and not the Eternal Spirit. 
The sage, who desires an immortal 
life, withdraws his senses from their 
natural course, and perceives the 
Supreme Being everywhere present. 

12 This body, formed of bones, 



skin, and nerves, filled with fat 
and flesh, is a great evil, and with- 
out reality. It ought to perish. 
Of what use, then, is it. for the 
soul to seek corporeal pleasures ? 

13 The inhabitants of this body 
are cupidity, anger, desire for 
wealth, error, anxiety, envy, sad- 
ness, discord, disappointment, afflic- 
tion, hunger, thirst, disease, old 
age, death. Of what use is it, 
then, to seek the pleasures of this 
body? 

14 Through strict veracity, uni- 
form control of the mind and 
senses, abstinence from sexual in- 
dulgence, and ideas derived from 
spiritual teachers, man should ap- 
proach God, who, full of glory and 
perfection, works in the heart, and 
to whom only votaries freed from 
passion and desire can approximate. 

15 Material objects have no dura- 
tion. As the fruits of the trees 
grow and perish, so do these ob- 
jects. What is there in them 
worthy to be acquired? Great 
things and small, commanders of 
powerful armies, kings who govern 
the earth, have relinquished their 
riches and passed into the other 
world. Nothing could save them. 
They were men, and they could not 
escape death. 

19 The Gandharvas, the Sooras, 
the stars themselves, do not endure 
forever. The seas will one day be 
dried up, the high mountains will 
fall, even the polar star will change' 
its place, the earth will be swallow- 
ed in the waves. Such is the 
world ! Of what avail is it to seek its 
pleasures ? One may perform meri- 
torious works, from self-interest- 
ed motives, during his whole life, 
he may enjoy all pleasures, still ho 
must come back into the world. 
He can only continue passing from 
one world to another. 

17 There is nothing desirable ex- 



NEW COLLECTION OF GOSPELS. 



305 



cept the science of G-od. Out of 
this there is no tranquillity and no 
freedom. To be attached to mate- 
rial things is to be chained ; to be 
without attachment is to be free. 

18 May this soul of mine, which 
is a ray of perfect wisdom, pure in- 
tellect, and permanent existence, 
which is the unextinguishable light 
fixed within created bodies, with- 
out which no good' act is perform- 
ed, be united by devout medita- 
tions with the Spirit supremely 
blest and supremely intelligent. 

19 thou, who givest sustenance 
to the world, unvail that face of the 
true sun which is now hidden by a 
vail of golden light ! so that we 
may see the truth, and know our 
whole duty. 

20 He who inwardly rules the sun 
is the same immortal Spirit who 
inwardly rules thee. 

21 That All - pervading Spirit, 
which gives light to the visible sun, 
even the same in kind am I, though 
infinitely distant in degree. Let my 
soul return to the immortal Spirit 
of God, and then let my body re- 
turn to dust. 

22 By one Supreme Ruler is this 
universe pervaded; even every 
world in the whole circle of Nature. 
Enjoy pure delight, man, by 
abandoning all thoughts of this 
perishable world; and covet not 
the wealth of any creature exist- 
ing. 

23 God, who is perfect wisdom and 
perfect happiness, is the final re- 
fuge of the man who has liberally 
bestowed his wealth, who has been 
firm in virtue, and who knows and 
adores the Great One. 

24 To those regions where Evil 
Spirits dwell, and which utter dark- 
ness involves, surely go after death 
all such men as destroy the purity 
of their own souls. 

25 Preserve thyself from self-suf- 



ficiency, and do not covet property 
belonging to another. 

26 The way to eternal beatitude 
is open to him who without omis- 
sion speaketh truth. 

27 If any one assumes the garb 
of the religious, without doing their 
works, he is not religious. What- 
ever garments he wears, if his 
works are pure, he belongs to the 
order of pure men. If he wears 
the dress of a penitent, and does 
not lead the life of a penitent, he 
belongs to the men of the world ; 
but if he is in the world, and prac- 
tices penitential works, he ought to 
be regarded as a penitent. 

28 No man can acquire knowledge 
of the soul without abstaining from 
evil acts, and having control over 
the senses and the mind. Nor can 
he gain it, though with a firm 
mind, if he is actuated by desire for 
reward. But man may obtain know- 
ledge of the soul by contemplation 
of God. 

29 Though man finds pleasure in 
that which he sees, hears, smells, 
tastes, and touches, he derives no 
benefit from the pleasure, because 
the soul, in attaching itself to ex- 
ternal objects, forgets its high ori- 
gin, which is The Universal Soul. 

30 It is the nature of the soul to 
identify itself with the object of its 
tendency. If it tend toward the 
world, it becomes the world. If 
it tend toward God, it becomes 
God. 

31 Saints wise and firm, exempt 
from passion, assured of the soul's 
divine origin, satisfied solely with 
the science of God, have seen God 
everywhere present with them, and 
after death have been absorbed in 
him. 

32 To know that God is, and that 
all is God, this is the substance of 
the Yedas. When one attains to 
this, there is no more need of read- 



306 



THE AEABTJLA. 



ing, or of works ; they are but the 
bark, the straw, the envelope. JS"o 
more need of them when one has 
the seed, the substance, the Crea- 
tor. When one knows Him by 
science, he may abandon science, 
as the torch which has conducted 
him to the end. 

CHAPTER II. 

" The following? says an author, "is 
one of the numerous prayers con- 
tained in the Vedas :" 

WHERE they who know the 
Great One go, through holy 
rites and through piety, thither may 
fire raise me. May fire receive my 
sacrifices. 

2 Mysterious praise to Fire ! May 
air waft me thither. May air in- 
crease my spirits. 

3 Mysterious praise to Air! May 



the sun draw me thither. May the 
sun enlighten my eye. 

4 Mysterious praise to the Sun! 
May the moon bear me thither. 
May the moon receive my mind. 

5 Mysterious praise to the Moon ! 
May the phuiet Soma lead me thith- 
er. May Soma bestow on me its 
hallowed milk. 

6 Mysterious praise to Soma ! 
May Indra carry me thither. May 
Indra give me strength. 

7 Mysterious praise to Indra ! 
May water lead me thither. May 
water bring me the stream of im- 
mortality. 

8 Mysterious praise to the "Waters ! 
Where they who know the Great 
One go, through holy rites and 
through piety, thither may Brahma 
conduct me. May Brahma lead me 
to the Great One. Mysterious 
praise to Brahma ! 



THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO 

THE ZEND-AVESTA. 



CHAPTER I. 

The Sacred Scriptures of the ancient 
J'er-sitms, contain many evidences that 
the Light was working its way into 
the World. Read the following sen- 
tences : — 

WORSHIP, with humility an I 
reverence, Ormuzd, the giver 
of blessings, and all the Spirits, to 
whoso care he has intrusted the 
universe. 

2 Men ought reverently to salute 
the Sun, and praise him, but not 
pay him religious worship. 



3 Obey s'rictly all the laws given 
to Zoroaster. 

4 Kings are animated by a more 
ethereal fire than other mortals; 
such fire as exists in the upper 
spheres. Ormuzd established the 
l\iii'>- to nourish and solace the 
poor. He is to his people what 
Ormuzd is to this earth. It is the 
duty of subjects to obey him impli- 
citly. 

5 it is the duty of children to 
obey their parents ; for wives to 
obey their husbands. 



NEW COLLECTION OF GOSPELS. 



6 Treat old age with great rever- 
ence and tenderness. 

7 Multiply the human species, and 
increase their happiness. 

8 Cultivate the soil, drain marshes, 
and destroy dangerous creatures. 
He who sows the ground with dili- 
gence acquires a greater stock of 
religious merit than he could gain 
by ten thousand prayers in idleness. 

9 Multiply domestic animals, nour- 
ish them, and treat them gently. 

10 Warriors, who defend the right, 
deserve praise. 

11 Do not allow thyself to be car- 
ried away by anger. Angry words, 
and scornful looks, are sins. To 
strike a man, or vex him with 
words, is a sin. Even the inten- 
tion to strike another merits pun- 
ishment. Opposition to peace is a 
sin. Reply to thine enemy with 
gentleness. 

1 2 Avoid every thing calculated to 
injure others. Have no companion- 
ship with a man who injures his 
neighbor. 

13 Take not that which belongs to 
another. 

14 Be not envious, avaricious, 
proud, or vain. Envy and jeal- 
ousy are the work of Evil Spirits. 
Haughty thoughts and thirst of 
gold are sins. 

15 To refuse hospitality, and not 
to succor the poor, are sins. 

16 Obstinacy in maintaining a lie 
is a sin. Be very scrupulous to ob- 
serve the truth in all things. 

17 Abstain from thy neighbor's 
wife. Fornication and immodest 
looks are sins. Avoid licentious- 
ness, because it is one of the read- 
iest means to give Evil Spirits 
power over body and soul. Strive, 
therefore, to keep pure in body and 
mind, and thus prevent the entrance 
of Evil Spirits, who are always try- 
ing to gain possession of man. To 
think evil is a sin. 



18 Contend constantly against evil, 
mora ly and physically, internally 
and externally. Strive in every 
way to diminish the power of Ari- 
maues and destroy his works. 

19 If a man has done this, he may 
fearlessly meet death ; well assured 
that radiant Izeds will lead him 
across the luminous bridge, into a 
paradise of eternal happiness. 

20 Every man who is pure in 
thoughts, words, and actions, will 
go t ) the celestial regions. Every 
man who is evil in thoughts, words, 
or actions, will go to the place of 
the wicked. 

21 All good thoughts, w^ords, or 
actions, are the productions of the 
celestial world. 

CHAPTER II. 

" A large portion of the Zend-Avesta" 
saps the author of Progress in lieli- 
gious 'Ideas, " is filled with prayers; 
of which the following are samples:" 

I ADDRESS my prayers to Or- 
muzd, Creator of all things ; 

2 Who always has been, who is, 
and who will be forever ; 

3 Who is wise and powerful; 

4 Who made the great arch of 
heaven, the sun, moon, stars, winds, 
clouds, water, earth, fire, trees, ani- 
mals, metals, and men ; 

5 Whom Zoroaster adored. Zoro- 
aster! who brought to the world 
knowledge of the law; who knew 
by natural intelligence, and by the 
ear, what ought to be done, all that 
has been, all that is, and all that 
will be ; the science of ' sciences, 
the excellent Word, by which souls 
pass the luminous and radiant 
bridge, separate themselves from 
the evil regions, and go to light and 
holy dwelliugs, full of fragrance. 

G Creator, I obey thy laws. 

7 I thinlc, act, speak, according to 
thy orders. 

8 I separate myself from all sin. 



308 



THE AKABTJLA. 



9 I do good works according to 
my power. 

10 I adore thee with, purity of 
thought, word, and action. 

Ill pray to Ormuzd, who recom- 
penses good works, who delivers 
unto the end all those who obey his 
laws. Grant that 1 may arrive at 
Paradise, where all is fragrance, 
light, and happiness. 

12 Ormuzd 1 pardon the repent- 
ant sinner. As I, when a man 
injures me by his thoughts, words, 
or actions, carried away, or not 
carried away, by his passions, if he 
humbles himself before me, and 
addresses to me his prayer, I be- 
come his friend. 

13 Grant, Ormuzd 1 that my 
good works may exceed my sins. 
Give me a part in all good actions 
and all holy words. 

14 I pray to Mithras! who has a 



thousand ears and ten thousand 
eyes ; who never sleeps, who is 
always watchful and attentive, who 
renders barren lands fertile. 

15 Thou Fire 1 sou of Ormuzd, 
brilliant and beneficent, given by 
Ormuzd, be favorable to me. 

16 1 pray to the New Moon ! 
holy, pure, and great. I pray to 
the Full Moon, holy, pure, and 
great. I gaze at the Moon which 
is on high. I honor the light of 
the Moon. The Moon is a blessed 
Spirit created by Ormuzd, to bestow 
light and glory on the earth. 

17 I invoke the Source of Waters ! 
holy, pure, and great, coming from 
the throne of Ormuzd, from the high 
mountain, holy, pure, and great. 

18 1 invoke the sweet Earth ! I 
invoke the Mountains, abode of 
happiness, given by Ormuzd, holy, 
pure, and great. 



THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO 

THE SON OF BEAHMA 



CHAPTER I. 

The following Scriptures are from the 
writings of Menu. " It is believed by 
the Hindoos" says the translator, il to 
have been promulged in the begin- 
ning of time, by Menu, son or grand- 
son of Brahma, and fir xt of created 
beings. Brit lima is said to have 
taught his laws to Menu in a hundred 
thousand verses, which Menu ex- 
plained to the primitive world in the 
wry words of the book now transla- 
ted." 

THE resignation of all pleasures 
is far better than the attain- 
ment of them. 



2 Let man honor all his food, and 
eat it without contempt ; when he 
sees it, let him rejoice and be calm, 
and pray that he may always ob- 
tain it. 

3 Greatness is not conferred by 
years, not by gray hairs, not by 
wealth, not by powerful kindred; 
the divine sages have established 
this rule : " Whoever has read the 
Vedas, and their Angas, he among 
us is great." 

4 Let not a sensible teacher tell 
what he is not asked, nor what ho 



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309 



is asked improperly ; but let liim, 
however intelligent, act in the mul- 
titude as if he were dumb. 

5 The only firm friend, who fol- 
lows men even after death, is Jus- 
tice ; all others are extinct with the 
body. 

6 The soul is its own witness ; the 
soul itself is its own refuge : offend 
not thy conscious soul, the supreme 
internal witness of men. 

7 Food, eaten constantly with re- 
spect, gives muscular force and 
generative power ; but, eaten irre- 
verently, destroys them both. 

8 The hand of an artist employed 
in his art is always pure. 

9 Bodies are cleansed by water : 
the mind is purified by truth : the 
vital spirit, by theology and devo- 
tion ; the understanding, by clear 
knowledge. 

10 friend to virtue, that supreme 
spirit — which thou believest one 
and the same with thyself — resides 
in thy bosom perpetually ; and is 
an all-knowing inspector of thy 
goodness or of thy wickedness. 

11 Action, either mental, verbal, 
or corporeal, bears good or evil 
fruit, as itself is good or evil. 

12 Justice, being destroyed, will 
destroy ; being preserved, will pre- 
serve ; it must therefore never be 
violated. Beware, judge, lest 
justice, being overturned, overturn 
both us and thyself. 

13 Injustice, committed in this 
world, produces not fruit immedi- 
ately, but, like the earth, in due sea- 
son ; and advancing, by little and 
little, it eradicates the man who 
committed it. 

14 Iniquity, once committed, fails 
not of producing fruit to him who 



wrought it ; if not in his own 
person, yet in his sons ; or, if 
not in his sons, yet in his grand- 
sons. 

15 He grows rich for a while 
through unrighteousness ; but he 
perishes at length from his whole 
root upwards. 

16 If the vital spirit had practiced 
virtue for the most part, and vice 
in a small degree, it enjoys delight 
in celestial abodes, clothed with a 
body formed of pure elementary 
particles. 

IT But if it had generally been 
addicted to vice, and seldom attend- 
ed to virtue, then shall it be desert- 
ed by those pure elements, and, 
having a coarser body of sensible 
nerves, it feels the pains to which 
Tama shall doom it. 

18 Souls, endued with goodness, 
attain always the state of deities; 
those filled with ambitious passions, 
the condition of men ; and those 
immersed in darkness, the nature 
of beasts. 

19 Grass and earth to sit on, water 
to wash the feet, and affectionate 
speech, are at no time deficient in 
the mansions of the good. 

20 Let every Brahmin with fixed 
attention consider all nature, both 
visible and invisible, as existing in 
the Divine Spirit; for, when he 
contemplates the boundless uni- 
verse existing in the Divine Spirit, 
he cannot give his heart to ini- 
quity : 

21 The Divine Spirit is the whole 
assemblage of gods; all worlds are 
seated in the Divine Spirit ; and the ■ 
Divine Spirit produces the connect- 
ed series of acts performed by em- 
bodied souls. 



310 



THE ARABULA. 



THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO 



ST. CONFUCIUS. 



CHAPTER I. 

This tcise and beloved Chinese philoso- 
pher lived Jive hundred and 'fifty-one 
years hefore the Christian era. The 
following passages slioic that the light 
of divine truth shone within him. 

DO unto another what you would 
he should do unto you. and do 
not unto another what you would not 
should be done unto you. Thou only 
needest this law alone, it is the foun- 
dation and principle of all the rest. 

2 We cannot observe the necessa- 
ry rules of life, if there be wanting 
these three virtues: (1) "Wisdom, 
which makes us discern good from 
evil; (2) universal love, which 
makes us love all men who are vir- 
tuous ; and (3) that resolution 
which makes us constantly perse- 
vere in the adherence to good, and 
aversion for evil. 

3 The love of the perfect man is 
a universal love ; a love whose ob- 
ject is all mankind. 

4 There are four rules, according 
to which a perfect man ought to 
square himself: I. He ought to 
practice, in respect of his father, 
what he requires from his son. II. 
In the service of the State, he 
ought to show the same fidelity 
which ho demands of those who 
are under him. III. He must act, 
in respect of his elder brother, 
after the same manner he would 
that his younger brother should act 
toward himself. IV. lie ought to 
behave himself toward his friends 
as he desires his friends should 
carry themselves toward him. The 



perfect man continually acquits 
himself of these duties, how com- 
mon soever they may appear. 

5 If you undertake an affair for 
another, manage and follow it with 
the same eagerness and fidelity as 
if it were your own. 

6 Always behave yourself with 
the same precaution and discretion 
as you would do if you were ob- 
served by ten eyes, and pointed at 
by so many hands. 

7 When the "opportunity of doing 
a reasonable thing shall offer, make 
use of it without hesitation. 

8 If a man, although full of self- 
love, endeavor to perform good ac- 
tions, behold him already very near 
that universal love which urges 
him to do good to all. 

9 He who persecutes a good man, 
makes war against himself and all 
mankind. 

10 The defects of parents ought 
not to be imputed to their children. 
If a father, by his crimes, render 
himself unworthy of being promo- 
ted to honor, the son ought not to 
be excluded, if he do not render 
himself unworth}'-. If a son shall 
be of an obscure birth, his birth 
ought not to be his crime. 

11 If a person has deviated from 
the path of integrity and innocence, 
he needs only to excite the good 
that remains to make atonement by 
pains and industry, and he will in- 
fallibly arrive at the highest state 
of virtue. 

12 It is not enough to know vir- 
tue, it is necessary to love it ; but 



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311 



it is not sufficient to love it, it is 
necessary to possess it. 

CHAPTER II. 

An Exhortation to ohtain Wisdom and 
topraeti e Virtue. Gluttony forbid- 
den. Re prnclaimeth the glory of 
goodness, andshoweth his admiration 
for the appearance of those who pos- 
sess it. 

IT is impossible that he who 
knows not how to govern and 
reform himself and his own family, 
can rightly govern and reform a 
people. 

2 It is the wise man only who is 
always pleased ; virtue renders his 
spirit quiet ; nothing troubles him, 
nothing disquiets him, because he 
practices nut virtue for a reward : 
the practice of virtue is the sole 
recompense he expects. 

3 Endeavor to imitate the wise. 
and never discourage thyself, how 
laborious soever it may be ; if thou 
canst arrive at thine end, the hap- 
piness thou wilt possess wiU recom- 
pense all thy pains. 

4 Always remember that thou art 
a man, that human nature is frail, 
and that thou mayest easdy fall. 
But if, happening to forget what 
thou art, thou chancest to fall, be 
not discouraged ; remember that 
thou mayest rise again ; that it is 
in thy power to break the bands 
which join thee to thy offense, and 
to subdue the obstacles which hin- 
der thee from walking in the paths 
of virtue. 

5 If a man feel a secret shame 
when he hears impure and unchaste 
discourses — if he cannot forbear 
blushing thereat — he is not far from 
that resolution of spirit which 
makes him constantly seek after 
good, and have an aversion for evil. 

6 The wise man never hastens, 
either in his studies or his words ; 
he is sometimes, as it were, mute • 



but. when it concerns him to act, 
and practice virtue, he, as I may 
say, precipitates all. The truly wise 
man speaks but little, he is little 
eloquent ; I do not see that elo- 
quence can be of any great use to 
him. 

7 Those who constantly consult 
their appetites and palates, never 
do any thing worthy of their rank 
as men ; they are rather brutes 
than rational creatures. 

S Eat not for the pleasure thou 
mayest find therein ; eat to increase 
thy strength; eat to preserve the 
life which thou hast received. 

9 Labor to purify thy thoughts; 
if thy thoughts are not ill, neither 
will thy actions be so. The wise 
man has an infinity of pleasures. 

10 Give thy superfluities to the 
poor. Poverty and human mise- 
ries are evils, but the bad only re- 
sent them. 

11 Riches and honors are good; 
the desire to possess them is natu- 
ral to all men ; but, if these things 
agree not with virtue, the wise man 
ought to contemn and renounce 
them. On the contrary, poverty 
and ignominy are evils; man natu- 
rally avoids them ; if these evils 
attack the wise man, it is right that 
he should rid himself of them, but 
not by a crime. 

1 2 The good man employs himself 
only with virtue ; the bad only with 
his riches. The first continually 
thinks upon the good and interest 
of the State; but the last thinks on 
what concerns himself. 

13 The way that leads to virtue is 
long [straight the gate and narrow 
the way], but it is the duty to finish 
this long race. Allege not for the 
excuse, that thou hast not strength 
enough, that difficulties discourage 
thee, and that thou shalt be at last 
forced to stop in the midst of thy 
course. Thou knowest nothing; 



312 



THE AEABULA. 



begin to run : it is a sign that thou 
hast not as yet begun. 

14 It is necessary, after an exact 
and extensive manner, to know the 
causes, properties, differences, and 
effects of all things. 

15 It is necessary to meditate in 
particular, on the things we believe 
we know, and to weigh every thing 
by the weight of reason, with all 
the attentiveness of spirit, and with 
the utmost exactness whereof we 
are capable. 

16 He who in his studies wholly 
applies himself to labor and exer- 
cise, and neglects meditation, loses 
his time ; and he who only applies 
himself to meditation, and neglects 
experimental exercise, does only 



wander and lose himself. The first 
can never know any thing exactly, 
and the last will only pursue shad- 
ows. 

17 To the mind, virtue [chastity, 
integrity, uprightness] communi- 
cates inexpressible beauties and 
perfections ; to the body it produces 
delightful sensations ; it affords a 
certain physiognomy, certain trans- 
ports, certain ways, which infi- 
nitely please. And, as it is the pro- 
perty of virtue to becalm the heart 
and keep the peace there, so this 
inward tranquillity and secret joy 
produces a certain serenity in the 
countenance, a certain air of good- 
ness, kindness, and reason, which at- 
tract the esteem of the whole world. ' 



-THE GOSPEL ACCORDING- TO 

THE PERSIAN PROPHETS. 



CHAPTER I. 

THE PERSIAN LITANY. 

LET us take refuge with Mezdam 
[God] from dark and evil 
thoughts which molest and afflict 
us. 

2 Creator of the essence of sup- 
ports and stays! Thou who 
showerest down benefits! Thou 
who formest the heart and soul! 
O Fashioner of forms and shadows ! 
Light of lights ! 

3 Thou art the first, for there is 
no priority prior to Thee! 

4 Thou art the last, for there is no 
posteriority posterior to Thee ! 

5 worthy to be lauded 1 deliver 
us from the bonds of terrestrial 



matter ! Rescue us from the fetters 
of dark and evil matter ! 

6 Intelligence is a drop from 
among the drops of the ocean of 
thy place of Souls. 

7 The Soul is a name from among 
the flames of the fire of thy resi- 
dence of Sovereignty. 

8 Mezdam is hid by excess of 
light. He is Lord of his wishes ; 
not subject to novelties ; and the 
great is small, and the tall short, 
and the broad narrow, and the deep 
is as a ford to him. 

1) Who causeth the shadow to 
fall. The inflamer, who makoth the 
blood to boil. 

10 In the circle of thy sphere, 
which is without rent, which neither 



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313 



assumeth a new shape nor putteth 
off an old one, nor taketh a straight 
course, Thou art exalted, Lord! 
From Thee is praise, and to Thee is 
praise. 

11 Thy world of forms, the city 
of bodies, the place of created 
things is long, broad, and deep. 
Thou art the accomplisher of de- 
sires. 

12 The eyes of Purity saw Thee 
by the luster of thy substance. 

13 Dark and astounded is he who 
hath seen Thee by the efforts of the 
intellect. 

CHAPTER II. 

Jlezdam, th-e First Cause, or God, speak- 
eth to t/ie Worshiper. 

MY light is on thy counte- 
nance ; my word is on thy 
tongue. Me thou seest, me thou 
nearest, me thou smellest, me thou 
tastest, me thou touchest. 

2 What thou sayest, that I say ; 
and thy acts are my acts. And I 
speak by thy tongue, and thou 



to me, though mortals 
imagine that thou speakest to 
them. 

3 I am never out of thy heart, and 
I am contained in nothing but in 
thy heart. 

4 And I am nearer unto thee than 
thou art unto thyself. Thy Soul 
reacheth me. 

5 In the name of Mezdam. 
Siamer! I will call thee aloft, and 
make thee my companion ; the 
lower world is not thy place. 

6 Many times daily thou escapest 
from thy body and comest unto me. 
Now, thou art not satisfied with 
coming unto me from time to time, 
and longest to abide continually 
nigh unto me ; I, too, am not satis- 
fied with thy absence. 

7 Although thou art with me, and 
I with thee, still thou desirest and 
I desire that thou shouldest be still 
more intimately with me. 

8 Therefore will I release thee 
from thyVfcerres trial body, and make 
thee sit in my company. 



PROYERBS OF 

S'YKUS THE SYRIAN 



CHAPTER I. 

In the translator 's preface it is said that 
"like Terence and Phaedmts, Syrus 
passed his early years in slavery. 
But as ice have no etidence that he 
was born a slave, it is supposed he 
became one. when Syria, his native 
country, was reduced, to a Roman 
province by Pompey (ye<ir of Rome, 

_ 690; B. C. 64). lie was brought to 

Rome ichen about twelve years of age, 

by an inferior officer of the army, 

<xUled Domitius, and thereupon re- 

14 



ceived the name Steps, in accordance 
with the custom by which slaves took 
a name derived from that of their 
province. The young Syrian w<is 
fair and well formed.' 1 '' These Prov- 
erbs were written about forty years 
before th* Christian era. 

DO not find your happiness in 
another's sorrow. Receive 
an injury rather than do one. 

2 Human reason grows rich by 
self-conquest. He has existed only, 



314 



THE AEABTJLA. 



not lived, who lacks wisdom in old 
age. 

3 A wise man rules his passions ; 
a fool obeys them. 

4 Be not blind to a friend's faults ; 
nor hate him for them. Friendship 
either finds, or makes, equals. 

5 He sleeps well who knows not 
that be sleeps ill. 

6 It is well to yield up a pleasure, 
when a pain goes with it. 

7 Men are all equal in the pres- 
ence of death. He dies twice who 
perishes by his own hand. The 
evil you do to others you may ex- 
pect in return. 

8 Happy he who died [in old 
age] when death was desirable. 

9 "We make the nearest ap- 
proaches to the gods [the angels] 
in our good deeds. 

10 A knave or a fool thinks a 
good deed is thrown away. The 
more benefits bestowed, the more 
received. Never forget a favor re- 
ceived ; be quick to forget a favor 
bestowed. 

11 There is no sight in the eye, 
when the mind does not see. 

12 There is but a step between a 
proud man's glory and his disgrace. 

13 The wounds of conscience al- 
ways leave a scar. Consult your 
conscience rather than public opin- 
ion. Consider what you ought to 
say, and not what you think. 

14 Wisdom had rather be buffet- 
ed than not be listened to. Folly 
had rather be unheard than be buf- 
feted. 

15 He who longs for death, con- 
fesses that life is a failure. A god 
[any thing external] can hardly dis- 
turb a man truly happy. 

16 Patience is a remedy for every 
sorrow. What happens to one man 
may happen to all. 

CHAPTER IL 

Syncs rejecteth error, and showeth the 



' folly of reliance upon externals. 
He exhorteth to a clear conscience, 
and showeth an empire to every man. 

THERE is no safety in regaining 
the favor of an enemy. It is 
madness to put confidence in error. 

2 The blessing which could be re- 
ceived, can be taken away. What- 
ever yeu can lose, you should 
reckon of no account. 

3 Reflect on every thing you hear, 
but believe only on proof. 

4 The less a mortal desires, the 
less he needs. Avoid the sweet 
which is like to become a bitter. 

5 Control yourself, and you con- 
quer a kingdom. 

6 It is a kingly spirit that can re- 
turn good deeds for reproaches. 
He who takes counsel of good faith 
is just even to an enemy. 

1 Discord gives a relish for con- 
cord. Even calamity becomes 
virtue's opportunity. 

8 For him who loves labor, there 
is always something to do. The 
hope of reward is the solace of 
labor. 

9 The life which we live is but a 
small part of the real life. A great 
man may commence life in a hovel. 

10 A prosperous worthlessness is 
the curse of high life. Many con- 
sult their reputation ; but few 
their conscience. 

11 Pardon the offense of others, 
but never your own. 

12 The sinner's judgment began 
the day that he sinned. Would 
you have a great empire ? Rule 
over yourself. 

CHAPTER III. 

Tie maJceth pthin the path of the, noble 
and righteous. Good men he extolleth, 
and looketh for good even from the 
hands of the evil. 

A TRULY noble nature cannot 
be insulted. 

2 Slander is more injurious than 



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315 



open violence. It is easier to do 
on injury than to bear one. 

3 To forget the wrongs you re- 
ceive is to remedy them. 

4 The right is ever beyond the 
reach of the wrong. To do good 
you should know what good is. 

5 In the art of praying, necessity 
is the best of teachers. 

6 A noble spirit finds a cure for 
injustice in forgetting it. Mighty 
rivers may easily be leaped at their 
source. 

7 The fear of death is more to be 
dreaded than death itself. 

8 You will find a great many 
things before you find a good man. 
A great fortune sits gracefully on a 
great man. 

9 The good man can be called 
miserable, but he is not so. The 
death of a good man is a public 
calamity. 

10 A wise man never refuses any 
thing to necessity. There is no 
great evil which does not bring 
with it some advantage. 

CHAPTER IT. 

He rebuketh hypocrisy, and exhorteth 
the judges to be merciful as well as 
just, lie explain eth misfortunes, and 
commendeth patience. 



WHY do we not hear the 
truth ? Because we do not 
speak it. Confession of our faults 
is the next thing to innocence. 

2 He can do no harm who has 
lost the desire to do it. , 

3 You should not lead one life in 
private and another in public. 

4 The judge is condemned, when 
the criminal is acquitted. Not the 
criminals, but their crimes, it is 
well to extirpate. 

5 A good conscience never utters 
mere lip prayers. 

6 Better please one good man 
than many bad ones. There is 
nothing more wretched than a 
mind conscious of its own wicked- 
ness. 

7 The memory of great misfor- 
tunes suffered, is itself a misfortune. 

8 The sweetest pleasure arises 
from difficulties overcome. 

9 Misfortune is most men's 
greatest punishment. No man is 
happy who does not think himself 
so. 

10 He is never happy whose 
thoughts always run with his fears. 

11 God looks at the clean hands, 
not the full ones. Patience reveals 
the soul's hidden riches. 



THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO 



ST. GABEIEL. 



CHAPTER L 

The inspired Russian statesman, Ga- 
briel Derzhamn, who in the seveyi- 
teenth century held a high place 
among the poets of his country, and 
who is now " wearing the garments of 
eternal day beyond this little sphere" 
wrote an ode to Deity, of which the 
following sentences form the sub- 
stance ; 



OTHOU Eternal One! whose 
presence all space doth oc- 
cupy ; all motion guide. 

2 Thou only God! Being above 
all things, whom none can compre- 
hend; who fillest existence with 
thyself alone : embracing all ; sup- 
porting, ruling all ; being whom we 
call " God" 



316 



THE AEABULA. 



3 Philosophy may measure out 
the ocean deep ; may count the 
sands or the suu's rays. 

4 But God ! for Thee there is no 
weight nor measure. None can 
mount up to thy mysteries. Rea- 
son, though kindled by Thy light, 
in vain would try to trace Thy 
counsels; and thought, like past 
moments in eternity, is lost ere 
thought can soar so high. 

5 All sprung from Thee — Light, 
Joy, Harmony — all life, all beauty 
Thine. 

6 Thy splendor fills all space with 
rays divine. Thou art, and wast, 
and shalt be the life-giving, life- 
sustaining Potentate. 

7 Thou the beginning with the 
end hast bound; and beautifully 
mingled Life and Death ! 

8 Suns and worlds spring forth 
from Thee ! and as the spangles in 
the sunny rays shine in the silver 
snow, so the pageantry of heaven's 
bright army glitters in Thy praise I 

9 A million torches, lighted by 
Thy hand, wander unwearied 
through the blue abyss. 

10 What shall we call them? 
Piles of crystal light ? A glorious 
company of golden streams? 
Lamps of celestial ether ? Suns, 
lighting systems with their joyous 
beams? But Thou, to those, art 
as the noon to night. 

1 1 Yes, as a drop of water in the 
sea, all this magnificence in Thee is 
lost. What are a thousand worlds, 
compared to Thee ? 

12 And what am I when Heaven's 
unnumbered host, though multiplied 
by myriads, and arrayed in all the 
glory of sublimest thought, is but 
an atom in the balance, weighed 
against Thy greatness — a cipher 
brought against infinity ? 

CHAPTER II. 

The psalmist traceth his life to God. Re 



ack.nowle&geth Ms own insignificance. 
God giveth all life, and receivetfc 
perpetual praises. 

BUT the effluence of Thy light 
divine, pervading worlds, hath 
reached my bosom. Yes, in my 
spirit doth Thy spirit shine, as 
shines the sunbeam in a drop of dew. 

2 Therefore I live, and on Hope's 
pinions fly towards Thy presence ; 
for in Thee I live, and breathe, and 
dwell. 

3 I am, God, and surely Thou 
must be ! 

4 Thou art directing, guiding all. 
Direct my understanding, then, to 
Thee I Control my spirit, guide my 
wandering heart, for I am fashioned 
by Thy hand. 

5 I hold a middle rank 'twixt Hea- 
ven and Earth, on the last verge of 
being, close to the realm where 
angels dwell — just on the boundary 
of the spirit-land 1 

6 The chain of being is complete 
in me ; in me is matter's last grada- 
tion lost. The next step is Spirit — 
Deity ! 

7 I can command the lightning, 
and am dust ; a monarch and a 
slave ; a worm, and a God 1 

8 Whence came I here, and how ? 
so marvelously constructed and 
conceived, and unknown. This life 
lives surely through some higher 
energy; for from out itself alone it 
could not be. 

9 Creator ! Yes 1 Thy wisdom and 
Thy Word created me. Thou source 
of light and good I Thou spirit of 
my spirit, and my Lord 1 

10 Thy Light, Thy Love, in their 
bright plenitude, filled me with an 
immortal soul, so that I can spring 
over the abyss of Death. 

11 There I shall wear the gar- 
ments of Eternal Day, and wing 
my heavenly flight beyond this 
little sphere, even to its source — to 
Thee ! 



NEW COLLECTION OF GOSPELS. 



317 



12 thougl it ineffable ! vision } Thy vast works I admire, obey, 
blest ! God ! thus alone my lowly j adore. And, when the tongue is 
thoughts can soar; thus seek Thy eloquent no more, the soul shall 



presence. 
13 Being! wise and good! amid 



speak in tears of gratitude. 



THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO 



ST. JOHN. 



CHAPTER I. 

The beloved prophet-poet of 2Tew Eng- 
and hath many inspired utter- 
ances; among them are 'these verses 
ofhopefqr the world : 

ALL grim and soiled, and brown 
with tan, 
I saw a Strong One, in his 
wrath, 
Smiting the godless shrine of 
man 
Along his path. 

2 The Church beneath her tremb- 

ling dome 
Essayed in vain her ghostly 

charm ; 
"Wealth shook within his gilded 

home 
With pale alarm. 

3 Fraud from his secret chambers 

fled 
Before the sunlight bursting 

in ; 
Sloth drew her pillow o'er her 

head 
To drown the din. 

4 "Spare," Art implored, "yon 

holy pile ; 
That grand old time-worn 
turret spare;" 



Meek Reverence, kneeling in 
the aisle. 
Cried out, " Forbear !" 

5 Gray-bearded Use, who, deaf 

and blind, 
Groped for his old accustomed 
stone, 
Leaned on his staff, and wept, 
to find 
His seat o'erthrown. 

6 Young Romance raised his 

dreamy eyes, 
O'erlmng with playful locks 

of gold, 
"Why smite," he asked, in sad 

surprise, 
"The fair, the old?" 

7 Tet louder rang the Strong 

One's stroke ; 
Yet nearer flashed his ax's 

gleam ; 
Shuddering and sick of heart, I 

woke, 
As from a dream. 

8 I looked: aside the dust-cloud 

rolled — 
The Waster seemed the 
Builder too ; 



318 



THE AEABTJLA. 



Upspringing from the ruined 
Old 
I saw the New. 

9 'Twas but the ruin of the bad — 
The wasting of the wrong 
and ill ; 
"Whate'er of good the old time 
had 
Was living still. 

10 Calm grew the brows of him I 

feared ; 
The frown which awed me 

passed away, 
And left behind a smile which 

cheered 
Like breaking day. 

1 1 Green grew the grain on battle- 

plains, 
O'er swarded war-mounds 

grazed the cow ; 
The slave stood forging from 

his chains 
The spade and plow. 

12 "Where frowned the fort, pavil- 

ions gay 

And cottage windows, flower- 
entwined, 
Looked out upon the peaceful 
bay 

And hills behind. 

13 Through vine-wreathed cups, 

with wine once red, 
The lights on brimming crys- 
tal fell, 
Drawn, sparkling, from the riv- 
ulet's bed, 
And mossy well. 

14 Through prison walls, like hea- 

ven-sent hope, 

Fresh breezes blew, and sun- 
beams strayed, 
And with the idle gallows-rope 

The young child played. 



15 "Where the doomed victim in his 

cell 
Had counted o'er the weary 

hours, 
Glad school-girls, answering to 

the bell, 
Came crowned with flowers. 

16 Grown wiser for the lesson 

given, 
I fear no longer, for I know 
That where the share is deepest 

driven 
The best fruits grow. 

17 The outworn right, the old 

abuse, 
The pious fraud, transparent 

grown, 
The good held captive in the 

use 
Of wrong alone — 

18 These wait their doom from 

that great law 
"Which makes the past time 

serve to-day ; 
And fresher life the world shall 

draw 
From their decay. 

19 Oh! backward-looking son of 

timel 
The new is old, the old is 

new, 
The cycle of a change sublime 
Still sweeping through. 

20 So wisely taught the Indian 

seer: 
Destroying Seva, forming 
Brahm, 
Who wako by turns Earth's 
love and fear, 
Are one, the same. 

21 As idly as in that old day 

Thou mournest, did thy sirea 
repine, 



NEW COLLECTION OF GOSPELS. 



319 



So, in his time, thy child grown 
gray, 
Shall sigh for thine. 

22 Yet, not the less for them or 

thou 
The eternal step of Progress 
beats 
To that great anthem, calm and 
slow, 
Which G-od repeats I 

23 Take heart I — the Waster builds 

again — 
A charmed life old goodness 

hath ; 
The tares may perish — but the 

grain 
Is not for death. 

24 God works in all things ; all 

obey 
His first propulsion from the 

night : 
Ho, wake and watch 1 — the 

world is gray 
With morning light I 

CHAPTER II. 

tfohn, being full of the love of God, con- 
' his humility, lie waiieih for 



death, and Tcnoweth that all will be 
right beyond. 

I KNOW not what the future 
hath 
Of marvel or surprise, 
Assured alone that life and death 
His mercy underlies. 

2 And if my heart and flesh are 

weak 
To bear an untried pain, 
The bruised reed He will not 

break, 
But strengthen and sustain. 

3 No offering of my own I have, 

Nor works my faith to prove ; 
I can but give the gifts He gave, 
And plead his love for love. 

4 And so beside the Silent Sea 

I wait the muffled oar ; 
No harm from Him can come to 

me 
On. ocean or on shore. 

5 I know not where His islands lift 

Their fronded palms in air; 
I only know I cannot drift 
Beyond His love and care. 



THE GOSPEL ACCORDING- TO 

GULDEN3TUBB&. 



CHAPTER I. 

\These Scriptures were obtained by the 
Baron de Guldenstubbe and 7iis in- 
spired Sister. These sentence* are 
selected from among a great number, 
which were produced on paper by the 
spirits alone, and not through the 
hand of a medium. The Baron dis- 
covered, that, to gain this Scripture, it 



wan necessary that there should be the 
male and female, or the positive and 
negative influences, present. The 
result is a little book, consisting of 
detached thoughts, in the French lan- 
guage. The account of how and when 
they were obtained may be found in 
a volume by the Baron, entitled, " Rea- 
lite des Esprits et Phenomene Mer- 
villeux — de leuer Ecriture directe."} 



320 



THE AEABULA. 



PRAYER is the touchstone of 
the spiritual man. 

2 Immortality is the Aurora which 
enlightens this world. 

3 Wisdom is the garden wherein 
philosophy must cull her flowers. 

4 Peace is the seal which the 
angel from beyond the tomb im- 
presses on the forehead of her 
chosen. 

5 Purity is the robe of the angels, 
and righteousness is the helmet of 
the wise. 

6 In the beginning the spirit of 
man reposes within the bosom of 
Divinity. 

7 Behold, oh men ! the eagle ris- 
ing in the air. He soars toward 
the heights of wisdom, leaving be- 
hind him the abysses of folly. The 
wise resembles him if he turn not 
his head earthward. 

8 The vertigo of pride turns wis- 
dom into folly. Humility is the 
basis of true grandeur. Great 
things are accomplished by her, 
and small things by pride. 

9 Hatred only takes root in nar- 
row hearts, and anger finds in little 
minds his sting. 

10 The intelligence of man passes 
like lightning before the look of the 
Eternal. 

1 1 Death is the sword-blade of the 
angel who guards the road to the 
tree of life, but already has the love 
of God blunted the point. 

1 2 When immortality commences 
doubt ceases, the soul, emancipated 
from her chains, wonders, believes, 
and falls at the feet of Deity. Eter- 
nity 1 we cannot comprehend thee, 
till we have entered thy sublime 
portals I 

13 Innocence is an aureole from 
the other world which decks the 
forehead of the child, but the dust 
of years effaces it. 

14 The stoic knew how to escape 
the world ; the disciple of Pytha- 
goras how to suffer it. 



15 Happiness loosens the bridle 
of strength. 

16 The scenes of life pass like the 
shadow which flies before the sun. 

17 The man Avho forever defers 
doing good is like the swamp of the 
desert. 

18 The whirlwind of misfortune 
bears away the just to depose him 
in the bosom of the Divinity. 

19 He before whom the depths 
are open, and who enables the 
eagle to balance himself on vacancy, 
can likewise fill with favors the 
depths of the human heart. 

CHAPTER II. 

THE prison of the body is most 
wearisome to the enlarged 
Spirit which aspires to immortality. 

2 An ardent desire to tear the vail 
which hides from us the Divinity, 
is the ladder with which we ascend 
to heaven. 

3 True love cannot exist without 
purity of heart. Barrenness of 
heart is the greatest of evils. 

4 Oh, justice, truth, charity ! royal 
mantle of the divine, how difficult 
is it to incarnate you into humanity I 

5 Purity and humility should form 
the diadem which adorns the brow 
of woman. 

6 Miracles, far from being con- 
trary to the laws of Nature, are 
actually a necessary condition in the 
organization of the universe'. Mira- 
cles merely manifest the power of 
spirit over matter by suspending for 
a time the effects of inert forces. 

7 The universe is an immense 
book which the highest seraphim 
had not yet perused. 

8 Prayer is the grand vehicle of 
the spiritual : time and space are 
absorbed in an infinite eternity, to 
the soul which is separated from 
matter. 

9 Science, worthy of its name, 
never fails to discern the greatness 
of God in tho laws of Nature. 



NEW COLLECTION OF GOSPELS. 



321 



10 In the last agony, man, instead 
of becoming unconscious, has, on 
the contrary, a double consciousness, 
perceiving things terrestrial and 
things invisible. 

11 The passage through the valley 
of Gehenna [through the dark pas- 
sages of selfishness and passion] is 
the most trying to man. The mercy 
of God alone can shorten it. 

1 2 Death is no longer a mystery — 
nothing dies ; all exists, and is only 
transformed. G-od is not the G-od 
of the dead, but of the living. 

13 Oh, my G-od, send us (as to 
Elijah) thy celestial fire, and kindle 
in our hearts that sublime faith 
which can move mountains. 

14 Charity is strong as death, and 
stronger than the walls of hell. 
Hope is the prospect of life eternal 
in thee. 

15 The lily of the valley conceals 
itself between two large leaves, yet 
scents the air with the most deli- 
cate perfume. So should the Chris- 
tian, though humble, fill the world 
with his good works. 

16 Intolerance is a conformity 
with evil spirits. Alas ! true tole- 
rance reigns alone in the kingdom 
of the heavens. 

11 The love of God is that 
heavenly flame [the light of Ara- 
bula] which enlightens each man 
who comes into the world. By 
losingHhe love of God we lose the 
love of good, faith in good, and 
even the hope of eternal life. 

18 A lively desire is the spiritual 
railway which bears the spirits, by 
thought, toward those they love ; 
for the tJuought of a spirit is himself 

19 Spirits incognizant of distance 
may perceive numberless happy 
states, in the different universes, as 
the rich man saw Lazarns, or as the 
lucid clairvoyant here sees at a dis- 
tance. 

20 State, in the spirit, depends not 
on place. Thanks to Thought 1 the 

14* 



state may extend to an ubiquity 
more or less complete. 

21 Spirits have their existence 
where time flows into eternity, and 
space is inclosed in infinity, as the 
dew-drop is lost in the ocean. 

22 Thanks to sympathy I that in- 
ner attraction, whereby a more 
advanced spirit can draw one less 
perfect toward himself, by inducing 
the latter to progress more quickly 
in the way of perfection. 

%3 All efforts made by philoso- 
phers and theologians to conciliate 
faith with reason have necessarily 
failed, not having been founded on 
the solid basis of a positive Spirit- 
ualism. 

24 True liberty of heart consists 
in obedience toward Providence, and 
its ministers, the angels and genii, 
called " gods " in all revelations of 
religion. 

25 Weakness of heart is the pun- 
ishment of cowards.. Adversity 
fortities a noble heart.* 

26 The search for truth is the be- 
ginning of wisdom. Hope guides 
us to the threshold of eternity. 

27 An enthusiasm for the love of 
good is the sacred fire of the soul. 
The profound conviction of immor- 
tality can alone produce a sublime 
death. 

28 The union of two noble hearts 
is like a diamond dropped from the 
crown of God. 

29 The fool is preoccupied with 
things of no moment. Mental 
slavery is the seal of infamy. A 
noble enemy ever admires his ad- 
versary. 

CHAPTER III. 

ACCORDING to so-called ortho- 
dox teachers, the demon is 
the sovereign master of the creation, 
whilst God is seated, like an old 
saint, impotent and superannuated, 
in a niche of the universe. 
2 The supernatural world of in- 



322 



THE AEABULA. 



visible causes, of which the soul of 
man forms a part, is in continual and 
intimate rapport with the material 
and visible world. 

3 The great ulcer of antiquity 
consisted in a tendency to Polythe- 
ism, whilst in our day humanity 
has fallen into the excess of Mate- 
rialism. 

4 The vice of ambition occa- 
sions the most suffering in the next 
world, because there are there 
neither thrones, nor prince, nor 
king, nor mighty one ; nor the 
reverse of these ; all are equally 
pensioners of God. 

5 The being of God is love;- how, 
oh man I canst thou define it ? The 
rays of hope shine even in hell. 0, 
the infinite love of God ! 

6 When love reigns in the heart 
of a man, it furnishes him with 
strength requisite for all noble and 
generous actions. 

I Two closely united hearts are 
like a flower with double blossoms 
.on the same stalk. 

8 The science of the ancients was 
a complete work ; it embraced 
causes and effects ; it treated of the 
rapport of the world of spirits with 
the world of bodies ; while our 
academies reduce all to the meanest 
and most narrow limits — to matter 
alone. 

9 Modern learned men [who are 
under the sway of the selfish intel- 
lect] have rejected from the sanc- 
tuary of the sciences its most beau- 
teous bud — the study of the soul, 
and of the world of supernatural 
and invisible causes. 

10 Magnetism is the aurora of 
science ; Spiritualism its rising sun. 

II Materialism reigns in our day 
as absolute sovereign on earth: we 
make it a duty to doubt all that is 
not material, nor susceptible of che- 
mical analysis. 

12 The merit of our strong -minded 



consists in knoiving nothing and in 
doubting of all — of God, of present 
happiness, and of a future life. 

13 Our learned men do not see 
that the truly strong mind rests not 
in the small sphere of credible 
things, but transports itself through 
the regions of immaterial beings, to 
study in that region any thing but 
imaginary and truly substantial, the 
nature and the power of the beings 
who dwell therein. 

14 Incredulity has, become, in our 
day, more profoundly rooted than 
in ancient times. Even the corrupt 
era of the Caesars never so entirely 
lost religious faith. 

15 Spiritualism in our day is a 
faint echo of the sweet melodies 
from the joyous phalanx of angels, 
who are preparing to chant the 
awakening of humanity. 

16 The rivers of divine grace, from 
eternity to eternity, are never dried 
up. 

17 The angels of the holy plain of 
Mamre are on the banks of the 
Eurotas transformed into gods. 

18 The revelation of Providence 
is universal. There are no chosen 
people. That Thou hast given to 
one of thy children, shait Thou not 
give to all ? 

19 Oh, weak and foolish man! 
that thou reverest in one nation 
thou abhorrest in another ; that 
which thou adorest in the town of 
Salem thou rejectest in the vale of 
Ida. 

20 To see the face of the Eternal 
is to lead a life of contemplation in 
His presence. 

21 Spiritual manifestations rend 
the vail between death and life. 
Death is the entering into another 
and better life ; the celestial aurora 
from which frequently illumines the 
face of the dying. 

22 Demonophobia and domonola- 
try are the arms of Satan [Super- 



NEW COLLECTION OF G-OSPELS. 



323 



stition ?] ; the rod of iron he has 
held suspended for centuries over 
the church and her bigots. 

23 The germs of spirits dwell in 
the Divinity, whose will detaches 
them from his essence. "When once 
separated, each germ acquires an 
independent individuality, which 
cannot perish; for God cannot 
and will not unmake that he has 
made. 

24 The unity of all spirit is possi- 
ble, because all intelligences are 



conceived and brought forth by the 
one great Intelligence. Spirits are 
merely the forms, multiplied and 
individualized, of one great Spirit. 

25 "When the shades of death 
close the eyes of the just in peace- 
ful sleep, his guardian angel opens 
to him the gates of the isles of the 
blessed. 

26 There is One only who is the 
alpha and omega — one universal 
Being, the beginning and the end 
of all things. 



THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO 

ST. JAMES. 



CHAPTER I. 

James is the given name of one, of the 
pilgrim teachers of the living Gospel. 
The following is from many of /m 
utterances : 

LIFE and death like the positive 
and negative forces, are twin 
brothers ; and, with all the Divine 
arrangements, equally desirable in 
their time. 

2 "Winter dies in northern lati- 
tudes, that Spring, wreathed in 
buds and flowers, may come. 

3 The worm assumes the chrysalis 
form, that it may become a winged 
insect in the mellowed air of morn ; 
and man, that the spirit, released 
from the physical, may reach, 
through aspiration and effort, the 
angelic existence. 

4 The Divine principle of life 
knows no destruction, no waste, 
considered in relation to the whole. 

5 Every thing that dies, dies up- 
ward. It is bettered by the pro- 
cess, and prepared to subserve 



some higher end in the circuitous 
cycles of being. 

6 Change is a fixed law, but 
nothing is lost. The storms that 
howl so fiercely, purify the atmo- 
sphere ; showers that rust grains 
revive grasses ; stars, like the 
pleiades, that fade from our eyes, 
illumine remoter parts of the uni- 
verse. 

7 The pearly dew-drops, that 
from millions of plants hang in 
glittering crystallizations, to be 
taken away by the rising sun, are 
not lost, but in aerial regions they 
become transformed into clouds, 
from which showers descend, glad- 
dening the earth. 

8 Some philosophers teach not only 
that "kind words can never die," 
but that every musical sound is im- 
mortal — traveling a wandering min- 
strel, cheering and charming some 
one forever. 

9 And every man's works follow 
him ; they also precede him to the 



324: 



THE ARABULA. 



Spirit Land. Eternity can only 
measure the effects of one kind deed. 
The work lives, though the work- 
man dies. 

10 Man is a living, thinking, 
aspiring, and progressive being, 
looking for the truths and glories 
of the skies. Yea, more, he is a 
stream fed from the Infinite foun- 
tain — God ! 

11 The eternity of man's existence 
is sealed in Infinity, and revealed 
through the ministry of angels. 

12 The desire for immortality is 
as universal as the races of men. 

13 In the beautiful drama of Ion, 
the intuition of immortality finds a 
deep response in every thoughtful 
soul. When about to yield his 
young existence as a sacrifice to 
fate, his beloved Clemanthe asks if 
they shall not meet again, to which 
he replies : "I have asked that 
dreadful question of the hills, that 
look eternal — of the clear streams, 



that flow forever— of the stars, 
among whose fields of azure my 
raised spirit hath walked in glory. 
All were dumb. But when I gazed 
upon thy living face, I feel that 
there is something in the love that 
mantles through its beauty that 
cannot wholly perish. We shall 
meet again, Clemanthe." 

14 The human spirit that ever 
was, is, and eternally will be, was 
incarnated for the purpose of re- 
ceiving lessons and experiences, 
that through struggles, sufferings, 
and defeats, it might achieve 
grander victories, and be ultimately 
intromitted into a higher, diviner 
consciousness. 

1 5 Do not forget the old painter, 
who, when some one wondered at 
his spending an hour on the shad- 
ing of a finger's point, replied : 
" Pingo in ozternitatem — I paint for 
eternity !" Verily, we are all liv- 
ing, acting, painting for eternity. 



THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO 

ST. GEREIT. 



CHAPTER I. 

He proclaimeth against superstition, 
rebuketh wickedness in high places, 
and calleth upon all men to render 
God a reasonable service. 

r~pHE priests, be it those of 
-L China, Hindostan, Arabia, 
Persia, Europe, America, or else- 
where, and be they however honest, 
are the worst enemies of mankind. 
2 For it is they pre-eminently who 
keep mankind down in false states, 



and upon those low planes, where 
ignorance and superstition nourish 
and give scope to all great evils. 

3 The people who are most given 
to these mysteries and superstitions 
crave the most priests. Where 
Americans are content with one 
priest, Spaniards want many. 

4 In all ages the priesthood has 
been deluded as well as deluding. 

5 Why do I hold the priesthood 
to be so largely responsible for the 



NEW COLLECTION OF GOSPELS. 



325 



wrongs and wretchedness of the 
world ? Because, that these come 
chiefly of the lack of religion, and 
that this lack comes chiefly of the 
priesthood. 

6 Fear and wonder are the chief 
elements of superstition. These 
are supplied by ignorance. Courage 
and composure come of knowledge, 
and grow with it. 

7 Ihe way to getrid of the priest- 
hood is to educate the people to 
require evidences of what they 
believe, and to form habits of mind 
which shall make them as inquisi- 
tive as the followers of priests are 
credulous. Skepticism is the first 
step in the world's progress from a 
blind and false to an intelligent 
and true faith. 

8 The study of the natural sciences 
— including, as it does, the habit 
of requiring strict proof — constantly 
diminishes that credulhy through 
which superstition enters, and on 
which it feeds. 

9 Reason and knowledge are 
conscious of their fallible workings ; 
and therefore do they tolerate dif- 
ferences of opinion. They inspire 
diffidence as much as ignorance 
does positiveness. 

10 Natural science has already 
done much to weaken and dispel 
superstition. It has put astronomy 
in the place of astrology, and made 
alchemy and the hunt tor the 
" Philosopher's Stone " and for the 
i; Universal Solvent" give place to 
Chemistry. It has liberated mil- 
lions from their degrading bondage 
to the authority of sacred books, 
and left their reason as free to play 
upon the pages of the Bible as 
upon the pages of any other book. 

11 While the mass of men con- 
struct their God out of their 
dreams and delusions, they who 
study the natural sciences are 
carried up through certainties to 



the certain G-od. The one imagine, 
and the other prove, the existence 
and character of God. 

12 Oh, no, religion needs not a 
priesthood ! It is as simple and 
instinctive as is eating or drinking. 
It is as much born with us as is 
our foot or hand. From ancestral 
faults or other causes our moral 
affections may be born imperfect. 
So, too, may our foot or hand be ; 
but in neither case is our interior 
nature responsible for the imper- 
fection. 

13 Verily, man is a religious 
being. He is made to appreciate 
the claims of God and man upon 
him, and to love his great Father 
and equal brother. 

14 The religion of human nature 
is harmony, not only with human 
nature, but with all Nature and 
with God. For every part of 
Nature is harmonious with every 
other part of it, and all Nature is 
in harmony with the Author of all 
Nature. 

15 When the matchless inspira- 
tions and sublimities of the Bible 
stand no longer in authority and 
superstition, but in reason and in 
truth only, then they will no longer 
be made of but the same account 
with the false and foolish things mix- 
ed up in the same pages with them. 

16 Now, as they have been falsely 
educated, good men feel that they 
would lose the whole Bible, were 
they to lose their confidence in the 
least part of it. 

17 And what will become of the 
Bible when men shall cease to 
take it as an authority, and to 
worship it as a fetish, and to pos- 
sess and prize it as a charm or an 
amulet ? 

18 Rather ask, what will become 
of it in the mean time, and during 
the superstitious regard for it. 
For there is no little danger that an 



326 



THE ARABULA. 



age of growing intelligence, dis- 
gusted with the exaggerated claims 
for the Bible, will reject it. But 
when this book shall, like any- 
other book, be submitted to human 
judgment, and men shall feel at 
liberty to discriminate between the 
merits of its different parts — as, 
for instance, between the incredible 
story of Jonah and the whale, and 
the felt truth of the sermon on the 
Mount — then will it be a new and 
inestimable blessing. 

19 Will there, when the priests 
are gone, be still a demand for 
preachers? Yes, greater than 
over I What will they preach ? 
Will they, like the priests, spend 
the time in telling their hearers 
what religion is ? Oh, no ; a 
minute a month will suffice for 
that ! In a dozen words they can 
say that loving G-od supremely and 
the neighbor as ourself; or more 
briefly, that being true to ourself is 
religion ; or still more briefly, that 
being ourself is religion. But the 
question remains, What will they 
preach ? They will preach duties ; 
will tell their hearers what religion 
calls for in the heart and life. 

20 And what shall we do for 
churches when the present ones 
shall have died out with the priests? 
We shall have infinitely better ; for 
we shall then have temples in 
which reason will do as much to 
enlighten and elevate, as supersti- 



tion does in the present churches 
to darken and degrade. 

21 Let it not be inferred from 
what I have said that I do not be- 
lieve in prayer. I must cease to 
believe in human nature ere I can 
cease to believe in prayer. There 
is not on earth a more unnatural 
man than the prayerless man. 
Want, fear, and love urge men as 
naturally to the Heavenly Parent 
as they do children to the earthly 
parent. Beautifully natural was 
Cornelius, who " prayed to God al- 
ways." There is nothing, in the 
bringing about of which men 
have, or can have, an agency, for 
which they should not at all times 
be ready to pray. Prayer for the 
crop is rational. But prayer for or 
against rain is as irrational as 
would be prayer for or against an 
eclipse. Prayer for a safe voyage 
is rational. It is, among other 
things, a prayer for self-possession, 
wisdom, skill on the part of tho 
navigator. But prayer for this or 
that wind is irrational. 

22 I affirm the supreme impor- 
tance of religion. The next life is 
but the continuation of this ; and 
we begin there just where we 
leave off here. If we are upon 
low planes here, we shall enter 
upon low planes there. If here 
we sustain high relations to wis- 
dom and goodness, we shall there 
also. 



THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO 

ST. THEODORE. 



CHAPTER I. 

Theodore, Parker, born August 21, 1810, 
at Lexington, Mass., was the grand- 



son of the man who formed the first 
line of defense and drew the first 
sword in the war of American inde- 
pendence. The inspirations of this 



NEW COLLECTION OF GOSPELS. 



327 



greai and good pveacher are fall of 
divine fire. Only a few sentences, 
among thousands equally inspired, 
are given below. 

GOD has all the qualities of com- 
plete and perfect being ; He 
has Infinite Power to do, Infinite 
Mind to know, Infinite Conscience 
to will, Infinite Affection to love, In- 
finite Holiness to be faithful to bis 
affections, conscience, mind, power. 

2 He has Being without limitation 
— Absolute Being ; he is present in 
all space, at all times ; everywhere 
always, as much as sometimes any- 
where. 

3 He fills all spirit, not less than 
all matter ; yet is not limited by 
either, transcending both; being 
alike the materiality of matter, and 
the spirituality of spirit — that is, 
the substantiality which is the 
ground of each, and which sur- 
passes and comprehends all. 

4 The evidence of this God is, 
first, in man's Consciousness ; and, 
second, in the World of Matter out- 
side of him. 

5 In philosophic men the reflect- 
ive element prevails; but I do not 
think they often have much intui- 
tive power to perceive religious 
truths directly, nor do I think that 
they in the wisest way observe the 
innermost activities of the human 
soul. 

6 The history of man is the cal- 
culated consequence of the facul- 
ties G-od put in man, known before- 
hand to the Infinite Cause, provided 
by the Infinite Providence. 

7 My consciousness of God colors 
all the other facts of consciousness ; 
my world of matter and my world 
of man take their complexion from 
my world of God. 

8 The feeling of God implies the 
idea of Him as lovely, and leads 
unavoidably to the resolution to 
serve Him by the means that He 
has provided. 



9 God did not make man with 
something redundant to be cut off, 
or lacking something to be sought 
elsewhere and tied on ; he gave us 
such faculties as are fit for our 
work. 

10 But by the true and philosophic 
or natural idea of God, all the Evil 
of the world is something incident to 
man's development, and no more . 
permanent than the stumbling of a 
child who learns to walk, or his 
scrawling letters when he first es- 
says to write. It will be outgrown, 
and not a particle of it or its conse- 
quences shall cleave permanent to 
mankind. 

11 The very pain the error gives 
is remedial, not revengeful ; it is 
medicine to cure and save and bless, 
not poison to kill and torture with 
eternal smart. 

12 Discipline there is, and must 
be, but only as means to the noblest 
and most joyous end. This I say 
I am sure of, for it follows logically 
from the very idea of the Infinite 
Perfect God. Nay, the religious 
instinct anticipates induction, and 
declares this with the spontaneous 
womanly logic of human nature it- 
self. 

1 3 God includes all, the heathen, 
the Hebrew, the Mahometan, the 
Atheist,' and the Christian ; nay, 
Cain;, Iscariot, the kidnapper, are 
all folded in the arms of the Infinite 
Mother, who will not suffer absolute 
evil to come to the least or the worst 
of these, but so tempers the me- 
chanism of humanity that all shall 
come to the table of blessedness at 
last! Death itself is no limit. God's 
love is eternal also, providing retri- 
bution for all I do; but pain is 
medicine. What is not delight is 
discipline, the avenue to nobler joy. 

CHAPTER II. 

The preacher declareth the glory of God, 
and manifesteth his great love for 



328 



T5E ARABULA. 



JTim. He glorieth in the Works and 
Providence of God. He denounceth 
the wickedness of shutting one's eyes 
to the beauty and holiness of the 
Father, and exhorteth all men to walk 
with God, and enjoy If is presence for- 
ever in life and its relations. 

MY delight in God increases 
each special joy in the 
things of matter or in the persons 
of men. 

2 I love the world the more, be- 
cause I know it is God's world, 
even as a dry leaf, given by a lover, 
is dearer than all pearls from whoso 
loves us not ! 

3 I remember to have heard a 
man, of a good deal of power too, 
declare than a man's love for his 
garden, his house, his ox, his horse, 
his wife, and his children, was all 
nonsense and absurdity; nay, "a 
sin " in the eyes of God, and just 
as he loved these things the more, 
he loved God the less; and if he 
loved Him supremly, he would care 
for nothing but God 1 

4 Every sense has its function, 
and that function is attended with 
pleasure, with joy. All these 
natural and normal delights ought 
to be enjoyed by every man ; it is 
a sullenness toward God not to 
rejoice and thus appreciate his 
beautifuj world when we can. 

5 St. Bernard walked all day, six 
or seven hundred years ago, by the 
shores of the Lake of Geneva, 
with one of the most glorious pros- 
pects in the whole world before 
him — mountain, lake, river, clouds, 
gardens, every thing to bless the 
eye — and that monk never saw a 
thing all day long. He was think- 
ing about the Trinity ! 

6 God made the world of matter 
exceeding beautiful, and meant it 
should be rejoiced in by these 
senses of ours : at these five doors 
what a world of loveliness comes 
in and brushes against the sides 



with its garment, and leaves the 
sign of God's presence on our door- 
posts and lintels. 

I Think you God made the world 
so fair, every flower a sister to a 
star, and did not mean men's eyes 
to see, and men's hearts to take a 
sacrament thereat. 

8 Our daily bread is a delight 
which begins in babyhood, and only 
ends when the Infinite Mother folds 
us to her arms and gives us the 
bread which does not perish in the 
using. 

9 In the sunshine of life, every hu- 
man joy is made more joyous by this 
delight in God. When these fail, 
when health is gone, when my eye 
is dim, when my estate slips 
through my hands, and my good 
name becomes a dishonor, when 
death takes the nearest and dearest 
of my friends, then my conscious- 
ness of God comes out, a great light 
in my darkness, and a very present 
help in my time of trouble. 

10 I am tormented by the loss 
of friends — father, mother, wife, 
child; my dearest of the nearest 
are gone; but the Infinite Mother 
folds me to her bosom, and her ten- 
derness wipes the tears from my 
eyes. 

II God made man to live with 
matter, and made them both so 
that there should be good neighbor- 
hood between the two, and man 
should get delight from the contact. 

12 God made men so that they 
might live with each other, and get 
deeper, dearer, and truer delight 
from that intimacy. 

13 Beauty is made up of these 
four things — completeness as a 
whole, perfection of the parts, fit- 
ness of each part for its function, 
and correspondence with the facul- 
ties of man. These four things 
make up the statics and dynamics 
of beauty. 



NEW COLLECTION OF GOSPELS. 



329 



14 Xow, looked at with the intel- 
lectual and aesthetic part of huxan 
consciousness, G-jd is absolute beau- 
ty ! He is the beauty of being — 
self-existence ; the beauty of pow- 
er — almightiness ; of intellect — all- 
knowingness ; or" conscience — all- 
usness ; of affection — all- 
lovingness: of the soul — all-holi- 
ness; in a word. He is the Abso- 
lute, the altogether Beautiful ! 

CHAPTER LTL 

The preacher explaineth the delightful 
relation* eJtistina between God and 
Hi* creature*. Re declareth against 
superstitions and slothfulness toicard 
God. and rerealeth the true idea of 
the perfections of the infinite Wisdom 
and low. 



W"E are all connected with the 
World of Matter ; with the 
World of Man ; and with the World 
of God. In each of these spheres we 
have duties to do. and rights to 
enjoy, which are consequent on the 
lul bs ione. 

2 We may derive our habitual de- 
light from any one of these three 
sources — the ■material, the human. 
and the Divine ; or. we may draw 
from all of these. 

3 We may content ourselves with 
the lowest quality of human de- 
lights, or we may reach up and get 
the highest and dearest quality 
thereof. 

4 Complete and perfect piety 
unites all three. — the great Thought 
— of the Infinity of God ; the great 
Feeling— of absolute love for Him ; 
and the great Will — the resolution 
to serve Him. 

be superstitious man thinks 
Ghat God must be feared first of all ; 
and the internal worship of- God is 
accordingly, with that man, Fear, 
and nothing but fear. 
6 Fanaticism is Hate before God : 



as Superstition is Fear before him. 
Fanaticism is a far greater evil than 
Superstition ; but in our day it is far 
less common. 

T Mysticism is sloth before God, 
as Superstition is Fear, and Fanati- 
cism is Hate before God. It exists 
still in some of the Churches, 
which cultivate only emotions of 
reverence, of trust, of love, and the 
like, but never let the love of God 
come out of the heart in the shape 
of the love of man. 

S But the true Idea of God, and 
the Religion which is to come of 
it — which is love of that God 
and keeping all his commandments 
— will work such a revolution in 
man's affairs as Luther, nor Moses, 
nor yet mightiest Jesus ever 
wrought. 

9 God in Genesis represents the 
conception of the babyhood of hu- 
manity. But manhood demands a 
different conception. 

10 All round us lies the World of 
Matter, this vast world above us 
and about us and beneath ; it pro- 
claims the God of Xature; flower 
speaking unto flower, star quiring 
unto star; a God who is resident 
therein, his law never broke. 

11 In us is a World of Conscious- 
ness, and as that mirror is made 
clearer by civilization. I look down 
and behold the Natural Idea of 
God. Infinite Cause and Providence, 
Father and Mother to all that are. 

12 Into our reverent souls God 
will come as the morning light into 
the bosom of the opening rose. 

13 Just in proportion as we are 
faithful, we shall be inspired there- 
with, and shall frame "conceptions 
equal to the soul's desires ;" and 
then, in our practice, keep those 
" heights which the soul is comoe- 
tent to win." 



330 



THE ARABULA. 



THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO 

ST. OCTAVIUS. 



CHAPTER I. 

[Octavius is the given name of an in- 
spired preacher in the great Atlantic 
city. He proclaimeth the truths of 
the living God, and giveth (special 
testimony Of the /Spirit to the people 
of this generation] 

IT was said by one of old that 
God thought the world into 
existence. The universe is a visi- 
ble Thought — a mass of divine 
Ideas. 

2 Is not each man, too, a thought ? 
And each woman ? — each child ? 
Does not each living creature report 
some idea of God, which no other 
creature reports ? 

3 Verily, we are all thoughts of 
God — thoughts dark, mysterious, 
inexplicable, unreadable, unintelli- 
gible, possibly — thoughts so small, 
so delicate, so evanescent, so re- 
condite, that they escape our notice 
— thoughts so confusing and dis- 
tracting that they confound our 
wits ; nevertheless, thoughts we 
are : divine thoughts — necessary, 
in some way, to fill up the sum of 
the divine thinking, and complete 
the sensorium of Deity. 

4 God's greater thoughts we see 
as the ages and generations express 
them. The thought of an epoch is 
plain. It is a dull mind that cannot 
discern the idea enfolded in a crisis, 
or thrown out by a conspicuous 
event, in history. 

5 It seems, sometimes, as if God 
dropped his thoughts one by one 
into the mind of mankind — a 
thought to a century ; a thought to 



an age ; a thought to a generation ; 
a thought to a year ; a thought to 
a nation, a community, a tribe — as 
if to insure its being well comp?e- 
hended and assimilated by the minds 
of men. Thus we hear often of men 
of one idea. 

6 Take the most familiar example : 
the Jews had, so far as appears, 
but a single object in existence — a 
single motive for being — that was, 
to firmly fix and live into the world 
the doctrine of "one God.'' 

1 The Semitic race was an anvil 
on which the hammer of God's pro- 
vidence shaped this idea. The 
Hebrews contributed this, and this 
only; and it was a contribution that 
was worth all it cost in time and 
life. 

CHAPTER II. 

lie sfioweth the thought of God in this 
centxcry. He discovereth that the life 
of a nation, as that of a person, is one 
with the Father. 

EVERY century has its ruling 
thought ; and this thought is 
always a thought of God. It is always 
a religious, a divine thought ; it is a 
thought always involving the moral 
and spiritual part of man — his be- 
lief, his aspiration, his hope. . 

2 In one age it is the thought of 
God himself; in the other age it is 
the thought of God in his provi- 
dence ; in a third it is a thought of 
God in his moral purposes ; in a 
fourth it is a thought of God in His 
spiritual manifestation. But always 
it is a thought of God. 



NEW COLLECTION OF GOSPELS. 



331 



3 The Thought of God, then, 
which is with us wlienever we awake 
to the meaning of our modern life, 
is this: The Natural Capacity of 
Man — Man, the individual man, as 
God's child ; Man as the organ, the 
instrument, the recipient of God's 
influence ; Man the worker and co- 
worker with God. 

4 Our America was born first of 
Puritanism ; it was born a second 
time of Rationalism ; its third and 
more perfect birth will be of Spirit- 
ualism. 

5 Men are knit to God closer than 
they suspect. His thoughts are 
not as our thoughts ; but only as 
they are so much above ours in reach 
and scope — so immeasurably beyond 
ours in their outgoings ; but our 
thoughts are his thoughts when 
they are deepest, and richest, and 
most inspiring. 

6 The thought that thrills and 
burns in our generation is, that ix 
man is all capacity for receiving 
divine influence; that through man 
is all working of the divine opera- 
tion ; that man is the recipient and 
the organ of that which we call 
i: divine power." 

7 To every human being, however 
mean and degraded, however cheap 
and vile in the eyes of his fellows, 
there remains a great conscious- 
ness ; that of being designed for 
something ; that of signifying some- 
thing; that of counting for some- 
thing, somewhere, if only as the 
leaves count for something, which 
enrich the earth by their fall. 

8 All things in him are manifest. 
Ay, ail divine things. They display 
themselves in him, and instead of 
changing him into another being, 
only make him more perfect in what 
he is. They are so native to his 
constitution, they agree so well 
with him, they feed him so natu- 
rally, they mingle so easily and 



graciously with his elements, that 
you cannot distinguish them from 
his natural properties. 

9 The philanthropies of our time 
keep pace exactly with the progress 
of this glorious thought. The re- 
forms of our age, however crude 
and coarse in form, express it. The 
noble charities bear witness to it, 
bringing opposite classes together 
for mutual relief. 

10 Who fails to see what immea- 
surable hope is 'contained in this 
Thought ? Our age is distinguished 
by its hopefulness. We are the 
hopeful people of the world. 

1 1 Boundless is our faith in the 
recuperative power of things. Give 
time enough, and all will come out 
right. The body will heal its hurts ; 
the mind will overgrow its doubts ; 
the heart will conquer fear and 
sorrow, and will rise victorious over 
the dolors of death.. Disbeliefs 
are but the teething of the soul. 
Progress, progress, progress is the 
magical panacea for all ills. 

CHAPTER III. 

The quality of Man's spirit is revealed 
by his ideal in religion. The preacher 
oeholdeth a new dispensation ; and 
prophesieth a new interpretation 
of Christianity, and a new reading 
of the Scriptures. 

THE fact that modern Europe 
has adored Jesus [as an 
Ideal] attests the presence of some 
vailed grandeur in the hearts of the 
adorers. The nearer one sits to the 
feet of such an ideal, the nearer is 
his spirit to the eternal. To sit at 
the feet of a nangel is to be one's self 
an angel. 

2 Suffering, vice, degradation, im- 
becility, limitation, were not so 
touching in the pagan world as they 
are in ours ; for they were not 
thought of as affecting so noble a 
creature. Byron makes us drop a 



332 



THE ARABULA. 



tear for the Roman gladiator, but 
the Romans dropped no tear for 
him — he was only a savage. 

3 The cure for every ill is the 
force that continues us till to-mor- 
row. It is very beautiful, it is very 
comforting, it is very supporting. 
Traveling through the valley of 
Baca it makes the barren place a 
well, the water filling the pools. To 
be hopeless is to be unbelieving. 
To despond is to discard the 
Thought of the age. 

4 It is said that our people have 
lost the faculty of praying. It is 
true that they do not, as they did, 
resort to stated and formal exer- 
cises of devotion : they do not 
kneel as they used to do, and offer 
special petitions for special gifts, 
expecting special answers. But of 
praying, in the deep and genuine 
sense, there was never so much as 
there is now. There was never so 



much looking out toward the Infinite 
— never so much craving for light, 
and life, and immortality. 

5 A new form of religious faith is 
folded up in this Thought of our 
century. It is the soul of a new 
interpretation of Christianity; the 
spirit of a new dispensation. Man 
is not to be molded by spirituality, 
but to be developed by it. Religion 
the highest expression of man ; not 
the pro roundest impression upon 
him. Religion that thing which 
reveals to man his greatness, not 
that thing which charges him with 
his littleness ; a religion which 
reveals his angelic nature, not which 
insists on the demonic. 

6 The Bible is a sacred record of 
man's holiest and tenderest experi- 
ences heavenward and G-odward — 
the Book of Books, because the 
Soul's Book — inspired as all the 
SouVs Books are. 



MEDITATIONS OF SAMUEL 

IN THE TEMPLE. 



S. B. Brittan, the preacher, editor, and 
author, was among the first and most 
effective pioneers in the new vineyard. 
After many years of incessant devo- 
tion to the work, he said : M He who 
plants himself on the foundations of 
popular Materialism will find that he 
stands on a sand-bar that is shifting 
about with every motion of the tides in 
the affairs of men, while Spiritualism, 
like an enduring rock, rises up amid 
the conflicting elements of ignorance 
and passion — a rock which the surges 
of Time and Change can never shake 
— on whose Heaven-lighted pinnacle 
the Angels build their altars, and 
kindle beacon-lights to illuminate the 
world /" He goeth out on the Sabbath 
and lifteth up his voice to heaven in 



wonder and praise. lie proclaimeth 
the gospel of Life to the children of 
men. 

IT is Morning. The sun shines 
gloriously over mountain, plain, 
and river. 

2 Nature calls me with many 
voices to worship in her Temple. 
The willing spirit answers, and I go 
forih into the great Fane that is 
consecrated by the Divine presence. 

3 No sexton stands at the open 
portals to point me to the lowest 
place ; and accordingly I will go up 
and stand on the pinnacle. 



NEW COLLECTION OF GOSPELS. 



333 



4 The chime of the waters, as 
they gush from the sides of the hill, 
is like the music of silver bells, as 
from some lofty spire the notes 
descend through the still air, to 
track the silent calls of sense. 

5 It is the Sabbath 1 yet all 
Nature violates the statute, and 
works without interruption. She 
is weaving virgin robes for the 
renovated earth to wear. 

6 The village, reposing beneath, 
~at the foot of the hill, looks like a 

silent worshiper, on bended knee, 
before the high altar whereon we 
will offer the incense of our grate- 
ful joy. 

7 Spring is here ! I feel her 
balmy breath on this brow, and her 
pulses in these veins. 

8 Nature's great heart beats under 
my feet and over ray head. 

9 Electric currents run through 
every nerve of her mighty frame, 
and every fiber moves. They 
play over the delicate pinions of 
the swallow, and he cuts the air 
with arrow-like swiftness ; they 
dance in the throat of the robin 
and the bluebird, and they come 
to me in music on every breath of 
the morning. 

10 The currents of the all-pervad- 
ing Life flow into every form of the 
natural world, and therefore all 
forms partake of the Divine energy. 

11 They are beautiful, because in 
and through them we perceive the 
light and life of the Omnipresent 
One. 

12 These green aisles, Nature! 
are hallowed by the footsteps of 
Deity. 

13 God is here, and the quick 
soul feels his presence in the midst 
of his Temple. 

21 The great dome is radiant with 
his light, and these emerald halls 
were fashioned and garnished by 
his hand. 



15 He touches the majestic moun- 
tains, and they are arrayed in soft 
robes of living beauty. 

16 He smiles on the valleys, and 
they blossom and offer grateful in- 
cense. 

17 Surrounded by all this beauty 
and harmony, I look, and listen, and 
am silent — speechless with admira- 
tion, with the fullness of joy that 
finds no earthly expression. 

18 Let me muse a while by this 
grove of young pines. This is con- 
secrated ground. The forms of the 
departed repose beneath these 
shades. 

19 Here and there, through the 
evergreen boughs, the white stones 
are visible, pale emblems by which 
affection marks the places where its 
treasures lie buried. 

20 Ah, how many have a vague 
and terrible apprehension that their 
friends thus sleep in the realms of 
dark forgetfulness, and how few 
realize that the departed, even now, 
possess the boon of conscious and 
happy existence. 

21 These pines wave with a 
graceful and reverent emotion, as 
the aerial currents from the adjacent 
hills flow through the numberless 
branches. 

22 Nature's airy halls are filled 
with weird strains of sweet and 
solemn music. 

23 By that white slab kneels a 
pale mourner ; with her tears she 
moistens the grave of her buried 
hopes, while her subdued moan 
blends with the low cadences of the 
murmuring woods. 

24 But my spirit rejoices even 
here and now ; for I know that all 
that is vital in man still fives, and 
must live forever. 

25 All life, as it is presented for 
human contemplation, is the Divine 
presence made visible in outward 
forms. 



334 



THE ARABULA. 



26 The great Spirit is the primal 
source of life : God is self-existent 
and eternal ; therefore, all life is 
of necessity immortal. 

27 This doctrine is taught here, 
above these graves. 

28 Every tree that spreads its 
branches over the earth; every 



leaf that unfolds i'.self to the sun- 
shine ; every flower that exhales 
its perfume on the air, and every 
spire of grass that points toward 
the Heavens, is an eloquent and 
instructive minister, ordained of 
God to preach the Eesurrection 
and the Life I 



THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO 



ST. ELIZA. 



CHAPTER L 

Of the spiritual nature of Woman. 

WOMAN" is feminine, or a true 
woman, in proportion as she 
is spiritual. An unspiritual woman 
is masculine, and is therefore re- 
pulsive. 

2 The Masculine is the minister 
of the Material, and of Force, 
whether intellectual or corporeal ; 
and the Feminine of the Spiritual, 
and of Power in its finer and higher 
relations of Divine use. 

3 The spiritual is the Creative 
power in the soul of Man or Woman. 
It is so by virtue of its oneness with 
the Great Artist -and Creator. It 
never lacks resource — is not 
daunted by any array of circum- 
stances, for is not the Infinite its 
all-suffering support ? It knows no 
despair, sees no failure ; knows 
that failure is impossible, because 
its aims are one with the Divine 
aims, which cannot fail. 

4 But the aim of the spiritual 
nature is expansion, and the 
simplest form of pure, earnest de- 
sire secures that. "Ask, and it 



shall be given ; seek, and ye shall 
find ; knock, and it shall be opened 
unto you." 

5 When the spirit acts sovereign- 
ly, it employs the whole nature 
harmoniously. Sense, passion, af- 
fection, intellect, have all and each 
their sufficient work ; when the 
spirit is satisfied, they too are 
filled and content. Its perfect sov- 
ereignt3 r is — not in their extinc- 
tion ; for spirit is cherishing, never 
destructive, toward any thing that 
exists — but in their cheerful abdica- 
tion in its favor. They forget them- 
selves. 

6 There is a great inner fullness, 
which comes not of bread and meat ; 
an inner warmth, that is not of fire- 
side or ermine ; an inner radiance, 
which the material sun can little 
affect ; an unfailing abundance, 
which no tide in outward affairs 
can turn to scarcity. 

7 For life is not devised to disap- 
point the human soul, but to afford 
it the fullest measure of satisfac- 
tion. If the satisfaction is not in- 
stant, it is because it could not, in 
the nature of things, be both instant 



NEW COLLECTION OF GOSPELS. 



335 



and ultimate ; for Nature, of which 
spirit is the essential, works for 
ultimates. 

8 Spiritual power is self-renew- 
ing; it increases by diffusion. Give 
it away if you would enrich your- 
self in it. Empty your soul every 
evening of all that you can impart, 
if you would find it overflowing in 
the morniog. 

9 heavenly state ! divine 
victory, which defeat can never 
dim ! Calamity may do its worst. 
Poverty may come, desertion, cold- 
ness of friends, bitterness of ene- 
mies, scorn of the world. They 
only kindle a diviner strength or 
pity, and throw the soul more com- 
pletely into the arms of the Infinite. 

CHAPTER II. 
Of the, spirit' ft office in maternity. 

IT is the spiritual which is the 
creative element of the human 
mother-nature, as of Mother Nature 
in the universal sense. Matter 
does not create. 

2 In the mother, spirituality is 
that deepest possible unfolding of 
the life of which only the conscious- 
ness can take cognizance. It is the 
opening of the heart of the rose, 
whence the tiny, subtle humming- 
bird may extract the nectar that 
sustains him. 

3 Spirituality is the characteristic 
of the maiden compared with the 
youth, as it is of the Woman com- 
pared with the Man ; but the years 
which make him more masculine, 
should make her more feminine 
(spiritual); for no other develop- 
ment whatever can give her a true, 
divine, creative maternity. 

4 The Romish Church has acted 
upon a true instinct in making 
Mary illustrious among women. 
Art, a far truer system than Papacy, 
has done the same thing. She has 
been one of its grandest and most 



j fruitful Inspirations — the typical 
| mother and child multiplied in vari- 
ous forms for the eyes and souls of 
J all Women, saying to them, " G-o 
| thou and do likewise." 

5 And the universal human heart, 
even though blind and cold, pays a 
certain involuntary homage to the 
mothers whose children have acted 
the Christ-part in their generations. 

6 Spirituality magnifies maternity, 
sees its real glory, and rejoices in it, 
as never other sovereign rejoiced in 
her earthly crown and scepter. It 
gives the mother at once pride and 
humility — pride, in her great office, 
though a manger be its cradle — 
humility, in herself as an instru- 
ment in the Divine hand for its ac- 
complishment. " Behold the hand- 
maid of the Lord ; be it unto me 
according to thy law. My soul 
doth magnify the Lord, and my 
spirit hath rejoiced in God, my 
Saviour. For he hath regarded the 
low estate of his handmaiden ; for, 
behold, from henceforth all genera- 
tions shall call me blessed. For he 
that is mighty hath done to me 
great things ; and holy is his name." 
This is the language of every true 
spiritual mother. 

7 We acknowledge with more un- 
stinted speech and feeling, the full- 
ness of the Holy Spirit in the 
mother ; and have a worshipful 
feeling toward her, as its pure, re- 
sponsive recipient ; a feeling which 
all mothers command in the degree 
that they are pure, divine, and 
aspiring in maternity; and will 
more and more command in propor- 
tion as they liken themselves to 
the typical Mary in becoming sus- 
ceptible to spiritual aids therein ; of 
which susceptibility a profound 
humility as to herself, and gratitude 
for the greatness of her privileges, 
are always among the clearest evi- 
dences. 



336 



THE ARABTJLA. 



THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO 

ST. EMMA. 



CHAPTER I. 

Emma Hardinge was born in London, 
England. She came to America in 
1855. She was then opposed to the 
idea of communion with the arisen. 
At length she became entranced. 
Then came the word of poioer : 
" Emma ! you must go out and speak 
to the world.'''' After a time, with 
much reluctance, she obeyed the voice 
from heaven, and her words were 
good and many, and her fame 
went before her. The following are 
selections from, her sermons to the 
people. 

THE aim of the people is, liberty. 
In every corner of the known 
earth, at this day, the cry is 
"liberty." Liberty for the body; 
liberty for the soul. 

2 It is not alone the masses ; but 
individuals are struggling for 
liberty. The cry has gone forth. 
That thought stimulates every 
brain and every heart. Hence, 
from before every pulpit, around 
the desk of every writer, the cry 
comes, " Liberty for the soul." 

3 Oh, Mystery! thou art indeed 
the mother of the abominations of 
the earth. 

4 Oh, mystery I can there be 
truth and mystery together? Is it 
a possibility that God's works, if he 
be our Father, shall be a mystery 
to us, his children? 

5 There is no mystery save your 
own ignorance, and your submission 
or tyranny one to another. All the 
wonders of the Almighty's gospel 
have unrolled themselves in the 
light of knowledge, or are now be- 
coming manifest to the investigat- 
ing spirit of man. 



6 The vail of mystery being lifted 
discloses the fact that the Almighty 
is the God of the living, not the 
God of the dead ; that the living 
are his ministering spirits ; that 
they can and do come to earth; 
that they are the ministers of 
light and knowledge, who, in all 
ages of the world, have gone forth 
to minister to the heirs of salva- 
tion. 

7 Yes, the last great vail of 
mystery is breaking fast. The 
great seventh seal, that so long has 
hidden the word of God, is broken, 
and the destiny of man and the 
knowledge of God are being re- 
vealed. The vail is rent in twain ! 

8 Progress is a portion of the 
eternal gospel of nature, which the 
ages tell ; which the history of all 
nations teaches ; which the advance 
of every art and every science in- 
dicates; which the history of 
planets, suns, and stars proclaims ; 
which man himself spells out from 
the cradle to the grave, in a per- 
petual series of progressive experi- 
ments, each one leading to the cul- 
minating point when his spirit is 
set free, to put in practice the re- 
sults of the follies, the trespasses, 
the hopes, the wishes, the aspira- 
tions which he has gained in his 
earthly career. 

CHAPTER II. 

She teacheth the gospel of God's provi- 
dence in his laws and works. She up- 
hraideth the people for lukewarmness, 
and counseleth all to live truly and dU 
like the ancient one. 



NEW COLLECTION OF GOSPELS. 



337 



OH ! we need not go and listen 
to the boom of the mighty 
ocean ; we need not wait for the 
thunder of the skies or the flash of 
the lightning ; we need not gaze 
into the immensity of space to find 
out God. Every forest tree and 
every blade of grass will tell the 
tale — will show wisdom, design, 
calculation. 

2 All things in nature reach their 
perfection here, except the spirit, 

3 We find that there is in the 
spirit a constant progress; from 
the cradle to the grave, the spirit 
manifests growth, but never change. 
Whatever is impressed upon the 
consciousness of the babe, remains 
with the old man. 

4 Yea, the destiny of the spirit is 
eternal progress I Stand upon the 
highest point to which your imagi- 
nation can climb, amid all the 
glories of sunlit skies and rainbow 
arches, pointing up to higher and 
yet higher worlds of light and 
splendor ; and doth not thy spirit 
aspire to it all ? 

5 Who among ye white-haired 
old men, as ye plant your trembling 
feet on the verge of the grave, can 
say: "My soul is full; I ask for 
no more; my soul is the perfect 
flower of my existence ; there is no 
more to be added ?" The cry is 
still for to-morrow ; the cry is still 
for light ; and the dim eye opens 
like a window of the soul looking 
through upon eternity, and still 
searching for and feeling after the 
endless vistas of a perpetually re- 
turning to-morrow. These are the 
evidences of immortality. 

6 In every condition of life this 
immortality would be a lamp for 
your feet. Ye build houses for to- 
morrow ; why are none building 
mansions for eternity? Alas! 
alasl either ye do not believe 
what your religionists teach ye, or 
ye fail in vour life-practice. 

15 



Y Neither believe ye in the im- 
mortality of the soul, or if ye do, ye 
do not manifest it. Ye write on 
tombstones: "Here lies," "Here 
remains," "Here sleeps;" and ye 
do this in view of that word which 
tells you of the God of the living. 

8 0, Man ! behold what thy spirit 
is ; take heed of its destiny, observe 
its origin ; know that knowledge is 
power ; as thou dost know thyself, 
so wilt thou die as the wise and 
virtuous Socrates died. 

9 Give us our daily bread for the 
body, is the cry of the materialist : 
but wherefore do you not ask daily 
bread for the soul? We will tell 
you why ye do not ask it — be- 
cause it has been poured upon you ; 
because the measure has been 
pressed down and running over; 
because the light has shone in the 
darkness, though the darkness 
comprehended it not. 

CHAPTER III. 

She glorieth in the processes of death as 
the steps of life. The finality of Sin 
is prophesied. God's light shineth in 
man's darkness. 

ROME, on her seven hills of 
pride, with her noble Coliseum, 
her towers, her mighty palaces, her 
men of wisdom, her legislation, her 
warrior strength and martial free- 
dom, was enough lor her day. 

2 Corinth and Athens were 
enough for their time, -but not 
enough for after time. 

3 They had no great factories, no 
steam-engines, no telegraphs, no 
railroads, no labor-saving machi- 
nery, no printing-press, nothing of 
all that beautiful new life that has 
grown up out of the ashes of the 
old world. She has perished in the 
night of death for her imperfec- 
tion. 

4 All hail, then, to that which y% 
term " death." Trace its actior}, 
and ye find it touches nothing 



338 



THE ARABTJLA. 



but sin ; that it leaves the good — 
that which is the gift of God it 
leaves to the inheritance of eternal 
life. 

5 Nothing which has been, which 
was beautiful or true in the past, 
has ever died. 

6 Man's sin is finite ; must not 
his punishment be so also ? 

7 Oh 1 ye who advocate the eter- 
nity of punishment for a finite sin, 
open the page of your Bible and 
read that the wages is paid with 
death. 

8 When sin is accomplished, the 



inharmony produced is life ; the 
misery that follows is death. 

9 The world revolts against sin, 
and pronounces judgment upon it. 
" It shall not be," is the cry of the 
world. 

10 Nature grants to every thing 
a stereotyped form, for the purpose 
of incarnating the life, and giving 
the spirit expression. 

11 Hence, premature or violent 
death is a misfortune, for it is an 
infraction of the order of nature. 

21 But God is good, and bringeth 
light out of man's darkness. 



THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO 

ST. RALPH. 



CHAPTER I. 

Ralph Waldo Emerson, one of the in- 
spired Script uralists of thin century, 
uttereth the living axioms of God to 
the multitude. From his many rev- 
elations the following passages are 
taken. 

TO the poet, to the philosopher, 
to the saint, all things are 
friendly and sacred, all events pro- 
fitable, all days holy, all men divine. 

2 A man should learn to detect 
and watch that gleam of light which 
flashes across his mind from within, 
more than the luster of the firma- 
ment of bards and sages. 

3 We lie in the lap of immense 
intelligence, which makes us re- 
ceivers of its truth and organs of 
its activity. 

4 The relations of the soul to the 
Divine Spirit are so pure, that it is 
profane to seek to interpose helps. 



5 Whenever a mind is simple, and 
receives a divine wisdom, old things 
pass away, — means, teachers, texts, 
temples, fall; it lives now, and ab- 
sorbs past and future into the pre- 
sent hour. All things are made 
sacred by relation to it. 

6 When a man lives with God, 
his voice shall be as sweet as the 
murmur of the brook and the rustle 
of the corn. 

1 The soul raised over passion be- 
holds identity and eternal causa- 
tion, perceives the self-existence of 
Truth and Right, and calms itself 
with knowing that all things go well. 

8 Nothing can bring you peace 
but yourself. Nothing can bring 
you peace but the triumph of prin- 
ciples. 

9 Proverbs, like the sacred books 
of each nation, are the sanctuary 
of the intuitions. 



NEW COLLECTION OF GOSPELS. 



339 



10 The soul will not know either 
deformity or pain. 

11 For it is only the finite that 
has wrought and suffered ; the in- 
finite lies stretched in smiling re- 
pose. 

12 my brothers, God exists. 
There is a soul at the center of 
Nature, and over the will of every 
man, so that none of us can wrong 
the universe. 

13 The way to speak, and write 
what shall not go out of fashion is, 
to speak and write sincerely. 

14 A man passes for what he is 
worth. Very idle is all curiosity 
concerning other people's estimate 
of us, and all fear of remaining 
unknown is not less so. 

15 Never was a sincere word 
utterly lost. Never a magnanimity 
fell to the ground, but there is some 
heart to greet and accept it unex- 
pectedly. 

16 Let us, if we must have great 
actions, make our own so. 

17 This over-estimate of the pos- 
sibilities of Paul and Pericles, this 
under-estimate of our own, comes 
from a neglect of the fact of an 
identical nature. 

CHAPTER II. 
He revealeth the origin of friendship, 
and the relations of man to the words 
and commandments of truth he de- 
scribeth. And he introduceth the spirit 
of man to the divine original. 

n^HE essence of friendship is 
-L entireness, a total magnani- 
mity and trust. 

2 You demonstrate yourself, so as 
to put yourself out of the reach of 
false relations, and you draw to 
you the firstborn of the world. 

3 Every violation of truth is not 
only a sort of suicide in the liar, 
but is a stab at the health of human 
society. 

4 Trust men and they will be 
true to you; treat them greatly, 



and they will show themselves great, 
though they make an exception in 
your favor to all their rules of 
trade. 

5 I see not any road of perfect 
peace which a man can walk, but 
after the counsel of his own bosom. 

6 We five in succession, in divi- 
sion, in parts, in particles. Mean- 
time within man is the soul of the 
whole ; the wise silence ; the uni- 
versal beauty, to which every part 
and particle is equally related ; the 
eternal One. 

7 Every man's words, who speaks 
from that life, must sound vain to 
those who do not dwell in the same 
thought on their own part. 

8 Only itself can inspire whom it 
will, and behold ! their speech shall 
be lyrical, and sweet, and universal 
as the rising of the wind. 

9 As there is no screen or ceiling 
between our heads and the infinite 
heavens, so is there no bar or wall 
in the soul where man, the effect, 
ceases, and God, the cause, begins. 

1 We lie open on one side to the 
deeps of spiritual nature, to the at- 
tributes of God. 

11 Some thoughts always find us 
young, and keep us so. Such a 
thought is the love of the universal 
and eternal beauty. 

12 With each divine impulse the 
mind rends the thin rinds of the 
visible and finite, and comes out 
into eternity, and inspires and ex- 
pires its air. 

13 The heart which abandons it- 
self to the Supreme Mind finds it- 
self related to all its works, and 
will travel a royal road to particular 
knowledges and powers. 

14 Ineffable is the union of man 
and God in every act of the soul. 

15 The simplest person, who in 
his integrity worships God, be- 
comes God ; yet forever and ever 
the influx of this better and univer- 



340 



THE ARABULA. 



sal self is new and unsearchable. 

16 How dear, how soothing to 
man, arises the idea of God, peo- 
pling the lonely place, effacing the 
scars of our mistakes and disap- 
pointments ! 

17 The soul gives itself, alone, 
original and pure, to the Lonely, 
Original, and Pure, who, on that 
condition, gladly inhabits, leads, and 
speaks through it. 



18 Behold, it saith, I am born into 
the great, the universal mind. 

19 More and more the surges of 
everlasting nature enter into me, 
and I become public and human in 
my regards and actions. 

20 Through the years and the 
centuries, through evil agents, 
through toys and atoms, a great 
and beneficent tendency irresisti- 
bly streams. 



THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO 

ST. ASAPH. 



CHAPTER I. 

He sheweth the right of every man to 
know his maker. The impersonality 
of GooVs spirit is taught, and the 
blessing of God's presence is promised 
even to sinners. He defendeth human 
nature. 

BIRTH, death, and every act 
that lies between, are physi- 
cal effects of metaphysical causes. 

2 How little man yet knows of 
the demands of his spiritual nature. 

3 It is the right of man to know 
the Power, to recognize the Hand, 
that gives him all he has, that 
guides him, that leads him, that 
blesses him. 

4 Who made the soul, with its 
conditions ? and who made the 
laws that govern it? God did 
these things. 

5 It will be by all men acknowl- 
edged, that God is in all presence, 
in all intelligence, in all power, in 
all love; for the recognition of 
God's infinitude commands this 
acknowledgment. 

6 Therefore the ways of nature 



are divine, and the- purposes of 
nature cannot be hindered. 

7 Every sinner is a lawful heir to 
God's love and goodness. 

8 The soul of one man is not 
superior to the soul of another 
man; for if one possesses the 
properties of eternal life and unend- 
ing progress, the other also does. 

9 My soul is my Bible, in which 
I read the truths of eternal life ; 
its longings and its desires are the 
utterances of my Bible. 

10 Every precept that Christ 
[Arabula ?] has given to the world 
is an invitation of love ; the law that 
resists not evil — a law of attraction 

11 Human nature may be in- 
vited, led, directed; but never 
driven. 

CHAPTER II. 

He proclaimeth the positive advent 
of Arabula in those who work good 
deeds, and not in those who only 
pray and profess. He denounc- 
eth selfishness and terrestrial great 
ness, and explaineth the causes of 
man's indifference to spiritual things. 



NEW COLLECTION OF GOSPELS. 



341 



CHRIST has come again with 
many messengers ; not to 
those who profess, but to those 
who practise without profession. 

2 The true religion of God is in 
the bosom of the sinner, no less 
than it is in the saint, 

3 Religion is not to be confined 
to temples made of wood and 
stone, to rites and ceremonies, to 
any outside show of righteousness 
or rectitude. 

4 Bishops, priests, and deacons 
are just as blind and just as sinful 
as the sinners they preach to and 
pray for. 

5 The acts and utterances of 
Christ that caused his crucifixion, 
the Jews called sinful; and who, 
in. all the Christian world, does not 
call the act that crucified Christ an 
awful sin ? 

6 In the fullness of selfishness 
man cannot see God, save in what 
is good for himself; all else is the 
devil. 

1 In the fullness of selfishness 
man cannot see angels, save in 
flesh and blood ; all else is fiction. 

8 Greatness among men is alone 
a property of the sensuous world ; 
it does not belong to the world of 
spirits. 

9 Man has no love for spiritual 
life and immortality, until sin 
breaks to pieces the earthly things 
on which his affections are fastened. 

CHAPTER III. 

He preachefh the sorroics of Gethsemane. 
Heaven is described, and hell also. 
He sendeth to hell every saint and, 
every sinner ; none shall escape, no 
not one. He foretelleth an era of icni- 
versal love, and promiseth abundance 
to those who shall live in that day. 

THE agonies of the Garden of 
Gethsemane must be passed 
by man before he comes to the de- 
velopment of his manhood. 

2 Heaven is rest of the soul. All 
that is peace, harmony, joy, happi- 



ness, is heaven. "Wisdom, order, 
design, are emanations of the atmo- 
sphere of heaven. 

3 The sin and suffering: incident to 
the school of man's earthly progress 
is hell. 

4 Hell is a soul-conflict, which is 
the effect of soul-growth; it is a 
struggle between the material and 
the spiritual. 

5 There is no task in the school of 
earthly experiences that is not initia- 
tory to the vast existence hereafter. 

6 Sooner or later, the unhappiness 
of one will be the recognized unhap- 
piness of all ; and the happiness 
of one will be the recognized happi- 
ness of all. 

7 Every cruel man and every cruel 
nation has yet to suffer cruelty at the 
hand of nature's unyielding justice. 

8 When man begins to love his 
neighbor as himself, he begins to 
give the same blessings to his neigh- 
bor that, in the school of selfish- 
ness, he has taken to himself. 

9 The mighty power of self-love 
will grow weak and weaker, and 
cease to be ; and the love of one for 
another will come in its place ; and 
then the productions of nature, 
given for ah alike, will be free for 
one common household. 

CHAPTER IV. 
He beginneth his lesson by declaring 
the eternity of good, and the final 
destruction of evil. Exhorteth to 
suffer evil, rather than resist it; and 
calleth all men blessed because of the 
new road that leadeth to the Promised 
Land. 

GOOD is eternal! evil is a 
phantom of time. Good is 
real and indestructible ; evil is un- 
real, and exists only as a shadow 
made by the sunlight of Infinite 
Wisdom. 

2 Each man follows his inclina- 
tions, though he may think he 
thwarts them; these are his pur- 
suits of happiness. 



342 



THE ARABULA. 



3 Hope is pleasure. Fear is 
pain ; and pain is the task, and 
pleasure the respite, in the school 
of life. 

4 Merit and demerit (in morality 
and in religion) will have no foun- 
dation to rest upon, when it is dis- 
covered that the will of man does 
not control his love. 

5 It hath been said, " How beau- 
tiful are the feet of them that 
preach the gospel of peace, and 
bring glad tidings of good things 1" 

6 To resist not evil, is to gather 
the flowers of life ; to resist evil, is 
to war with the thorns that grow 
upon the same tree with the 
flowers. 

1 How finite are the mightiest 



conceptions of the soul's vision 
now, when compared with the il- 
limitable grandeur of its undefined, 
eternal progression in truth and 
light. 

8 Blessed are ye, for a new era is 
beginning; a new religion is com- 
ing ; a new day of morals is dawn- 
ing ; a new road for human progress 
is making. 

9 This is that road which the toil- 
ing hands and sacrifices of millions 
have graded, over lowlands and 
through highlands, over the 
swamps of humility and through 
the mountains of pride. It is a 
straight, a level, and a grand high- 
way for all humanity ; it leads on- 
ward forever. 



THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO 

ST. MARY. 



CHAPTER I. 

Marifs spirit-eyes were opened as in a 
dream; and she hath a vision of 
hearten. She beholdeth a great sea, 
and standeth by the side thereof. 
She entereth the grove of her father, 
and from thence beheld the unfolding 
of a new heaven and a new earth. 

ONE morning, as I lay between 
sleeping and waking, in a 
state of semi-unconsciousness, I was 
accosted by a familiar friend, who 
was at that time separated from me 
by many leagues of ocean. 

2 And the sea on which she hid 
embarked was at our feet, and 
stretched away into the distance. 

3 And I was aware, as we gazed 
upon it, that it was actually betwoen 
us, and yet we clasped hands and 



exchanged affectionate words, and 
agreed to remember that on that day 
and hour we met there, though bodi- 
ly she wastwo thousand miles away. 

4 And then I ceased to be cogni- 
zant of my friend's presence. 

& But still I looked out upon the 
sea, which became irradiated with 
a strange beauty, which appearance 
I saw, on looking up and around 
me, was worn by sky and earth as 
well as ocean. 

6 And I was in the midst of a 
new scene. The waves before me 
were tinged with the softest, mel- 
lowest tints — rich, warm, and radi- 
ant; and in their midst I saw 
islands which looked like enchanted 
regions, clothed in a mantle of. 
supernal beauty. 






NEW COLLECTION OF GO PJLS. 



343 



"7 The scene now faded, and in the 
twinkling of an eye I seemed to be 
upon a spot to which my feet had 
often strayed in childhood and 
youth — the summit of a hillside, on 
which my father had planted and 
brought to rare perfection an apple 
grove. 

8 And as I leaned against the 
bars, at the upper limit of the 
grove, for support, I became aware 
of the presence of two young girls. 

9 Then a blindness fell upon my 
outer vision, and my eyes closed 
heavily, but with an effort I lifted 
the lids again. 

10 When lo! I saw, as with a 
wondrous, deeper vision, a New 
Heaven and a New Earth. 

1 1 And I no longer realized any 
mortal presence — I was alone with 

the BEAUTIFUL. 

12 And behold, the same glow of 
unearthly loveliness irradiated all 
things, such as I had seen envelop- 
ing the sea and its island gems. 

13 And the sky was warm and 
golden, and encompassed the radi- 
iant earth like overshadowing 
wings of love. 

14 The forest, clothed with rich 
and varied foliage, waved and glis- 
tened in the resplendent sunlight 
and odorous breeze. 

15 And the azure-hued and 
purple mountains lay sleeping upon 
the distant horizon; and the far- 
spreading plains drank in the 
balmy, life-giving, pellucid atmo- 
sphere, and reflected the subdued 
luster of its wondrous beauty. 

CHAPTER IL 

JJer vision eontinueth, and she saw 
skies and landscapes not possible to 
describe. S'te beheld the golden glories 
of the Summer Land, the same that 
was called by tlm Apostle "the third 
heaven.^ 

UNWILLINGLY, 1 closed my 
eyes upon this holy scene. 



2 But after a moment's rest raised 
the lids of my eyes again with 
much effort, fearful that I should 
fail to get another glimpse of the 
surpassing beauty which enraptur- 
ed my spirit. 

3 And behold, the cloud-like dim- 
ness cleared away, and again there 
grew upon my inner sight the 
golden, opalescent sky, loving- 
ly overarching the responsive 
earth. 

4 And lo ! nothing that my bodily 
eyes ever beheld, or that poets 
have pictured to my imagination, 
equals the beauty which my en- 
franchised vision now drank in 
from the vast landscape surround- 
ing me. 

5 Yea, to describe it, my speech 
should be " lyrical, and sweet, and 
universal, as the rising ofthe wind." 

6 On my right, a scene like an 
" Indian Summer, 1 ' but far surpass- 
ing it in tender, dreamy, divine 
repose, first claimed and chained 
my attention. 

7 The foreground rolled back by 
gentle undulations, till it blended 
with a luxurious grove, whose 
branches swayed with a melodious 
motion, like a surging sea of myriad 
gems. 

8 In that foreground and in that 
forest the colors were so intricately 
blended, so changing, so vastly 
more charming than colors called 
the same when seen by bodily 
eyes, that language comes far, far 
short of giving the picture an ade- 
quate representation. 

9 Amber, and violet, and green, 
the ruby's burning red, the purple 
of the amaranth, the golden glory 
of the orange blossom, there blend- 
ed in transfigured and ethereal 
loveliness. 

10 And the undulating, iridescent 
sky drooped low to touch the tree- 
tops, and the sweet calm surface 



344: 



THE ARABTJLA. 



of the swelling and retreating land- 
scape with its splendor. 

CHAPTER in. 

On opening her spirit eyes for the third 
time, she witnesseth the great trees of 
life, and the lakes, and the grouped 
habitations of the angels. She behold- 
eth the central dwelling of a great 
Brotherhood. 

ONCE more my eyes closed un- 
willingly, but I quickly forced 
them open lest I should lose the 
sacred enjoyment of this heavenly 
scene. 

2 And now looking to the left I 
saw, seemingly very near me, a 
grove of tall trees, which were in 
form and structure like our aspen 
or poplar trees, but far surpassing 
them in height, luxuriance, and 
luster. 

3 And with a basis of deep green, 
tfee glossy leaves, as they trembled 
in that blessed sunlight, reflected 
"the rich hues of all glorious 
things," rapidly changing mean- 
while liko the colors of the kaleido- 
scope. 

<t And behold, these trees rose to 
an immense height, and were grand 
in assemblage, forming a fit temple 
for the heart's joyous adoration. 

5 And, directly in front, an open 
landscape stretched away into the 
distance, in which I could discern a 
lake with its silver tide of softly 
flowing waters. 

6 And beyond this lake I beheld 
castellated dwellings, with crystal 
domes, nestled amid surrounding 
hills. 

7 And between me and the lake 
the green-sward rolled gently down 
to the margin of the water ; and I 
could see the taller grasses near 
the lake glisten in their wavy 



motion, as if each leaf were a trans- 
parent emerald, diamond-crowned. 

8 And behold, the dwellings be- 
yond the lake were very .far off, but 
I could see that they were all 
grouped about a Central Building, 
large, dome-crowned, beautiful and 
graceful in outline and proportion ; 

9 And so harmoniously arranged 
were the adjacent homes, with re- 
gard to this central building, that 
all seemed like one vast edifice with 
numberless architectural and artis- 
tic variations. 

10 Yea, most ethereal and deli- 
cately beautiful seemed this castel- 
lated group — these palaces of a 
Brotherhood ; and over them hov- 
ered the atmosphere of eternal 
peace. 

11 And the lake was large ; at the 
left I could not trace its whole 
extent. 

12 But how pure and sweet were 
its waters ; how peaceful and me- 
lodious their flow ; and how mar- 
velous the beauty of their sky-re- 
flecting depths. 

13 In one place something caused 
an eddy, and a slight tossing of 
spray. And lo, how lustrous the 
sheen of those limpid waves : how 
resplendent the feathery crescent 
which leaped from their depths and 
fell again like a shower of liquid 
light. 

14 Fain would I have lingered 
and gazed forever on this sacred 
realm of immortal beauty ; 

15 But, now, darkness gathered 
upon my senses like a pall; my 
eyelids drooped wearily ; a sound 
like the rumbling of chariot wheels 
rang in my ears ; and, with a 
shudder, I returned to my bodily 
consciousness. 



NEW COLLECTION OF GOSPELS. 



315 



THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO 

ST. SELDEK. 



CHAPTER I. 

Selden Johnson Finney is an inspired 
philosopher and preacher of this cen- 
tury. The Arabula moveth his tongue 
to marvelous eloquence, and filleth 
Ids mind with prophecies and far- 
reaching revelations of truth. From 
his numerous utterances the following 
passages are selected. 

I SOMETIMES tremble when I 
contemplate the vastness of the 
possibilities of mankind ; tethered 
as they are to the world that was, 
to the world that is, and to the 
endless future. 

2 Man is a myriad-stringed in- 
strument facing every point of the 
infinite radius, and able to receive 
and repeat all the harmonies of the 
universe. His bosom contains the 
germs of all conceivable grace, 
personal perfection, and spiritual 
beauty. The glory of sun and 
star is eclipsed by the glory of that 
reason, of that soul that can weigh 
and measure sun and star. 

3 The way of life is wonderful ; it 
proceeds by abandonment to the 
currents of eternal power. Tenden- 
cies are streams of power setting 
into us from the eternal deeps of 
Spiritual Being, and indicate at once 
the duties and destinies of the times. 

4 I would fain turn away my 
mind for a few brief moments from 
the gUttering revel of this phenome- 
nal world, and in spirit stand un- 
covered and serene beneath the 
boundless expanse of absolute 
liberty, justice, love, law, light, and 
beauty. 

5 Man is found to be the divinest 

15* 



creation on the planet. The idea 
of man is rising. He is no longer 
to be controlled by institutions. 
They are made for him, not he for 
them. It is the age of spiritual 
and political liberty, because it is 
the age of spiritual inspiration. 

6 Let us no longer distrust our 
spiritual powers. Let us no longer 
be enslaved with these external 
things ; let us use them, and not 
let them use us ; and remember it 
is only when in the higher moments 
of our interior life we do conscious- 
ly feel the surges of the everlasting- 
nature, that we can realize the 
sweet and holy significance of im- 
mortal life. 

7 The rays of man's selfish intel- 
lectuality fall on the soul like 
moonbeams reflected from an ice- 
berg ; only to freeze the germs of 
our spiritual affections, which yearn 
to be ingulfed in divine love and 
beauty. 

8 Divine truth proves the unity 
of Nature, and shows that our hells 
are kindled here by our own hands, 
in our own breasts. 

9 All substance and power is 
one, or no universe could arise 
out of them. Hence man is the 
autocrat of creation. He carries, 
sheathed within his flesh, the po- 
tent secret of all things. 

10 Man fronts two worlds at once ; 
with something of the animal and 
something of the angel in him. , He 
belongs to substance, yet lives amid 
the shadows ; he lives in the world 
of forms, while the eternal perfec- 
tions of which these forms are 



346 



THE ARABULA. 



symbols live in him ; he sees the 
symbols with his eyes, but he feels 
the divine verities signified, with 
his spirit. 

11 Not only is man the culmina- 
tion of all the kingdoms that have 
preceded him as phenomena, but 
he is more — he is causation itself 
in both law and substance. 

12 All the powers of dead gene- 
rations are transmuted into the 
fresh activities of the present. 
Even the experience of all ages is 
living in the brains and blood of 
this generation. 

13 The ganglionic centers of the 
race have received and will yield all 
that is lasting of the very life of the 
thought of the dead ; so that if all 
books of history and all art and nil 
law were destroyed to-day, we 
could rebuild to-morrow the age, 
and improve upon it, too. For 
the world is alive. 

14 But there is no permanent ele- 
ment of wealth but truth, justice, 
love, wisdom — the eternal verities 
of the soul and of God. 

15 The records of eternity fled, 
are wrought into the structure of 
his spirit, so the great function of 
his immortal life is, to remember — 
to bethink himself. And this shall 
be our worship, far above the 
"starry floor of heaven." And 
this is the unutterable prayer: Let 
us possess ourselves. 

16 It is not what we do, it is not 
our history, that makes us divine — 
it is what we are, and what we are 
to be forever. 

CHAPTER II. 

A great multitude gathered under the 
trees for amusement ; but Selden be- 
ing among them, and seeing the 
throng, openeth his mouth and taught 
them concerning the divinity of man. 
lie extolleth the sublime capacities 
and deathless relationships of the 
human soul. 

THERE is no middle ground be- 
tween natural religious inspi- 



ration and the groat spiritual idea, 
The farthest star sends its beams 
down into our world, and celestial 
chemistry picks them to pieces, and 
ascertains thereby the constituents 
of distant suns. So with the light 
of immortal life. Its idea, an intui- 
tion in us, is the eternal recognition 
of the far-fallen beams of celestial 
being — of Spiritual life. 

2 Intuition of the spiritual and 
divine is the spontaneous spiritual 
chemistry of the soul. There are 
no "discreet degrees" in nature 
between "matter" and "spirit;" 
there is no qualitative chasm . or 
vacuum over which, from either 
side, influences cannot pass. 

3 The same energies of Nature 
which hardened the Azoic rocks, 
which grew the vegetation of the 
carboniferous era, and which has 
crowded whole epochs of wonder- 
ful life into the crust of the world, 
are to-day operating on the surface 
or within its depths. 

4 The expanded earth and unfold- 
ed heavens are manfestations of an 
Eternal Spirit. The rocks, hills, 
valleys, rivers, ocean, and stars 
gleam with the white splendors of 
the Divine Reason. 

5 The Spiritual idea of substance 
is arising from science. All bodies 
are now proved to be only petrified 
forms of force ; all forces are proved, 
by their mutual transformability, to 
be only modes of the action of some 
common, simple, homogeneous, in- 
visible or spiritual Power ; and all 
power is eternal, infinite aDd divine. 

6 Eor how could man receive life, 
power, substance, light, heat, 
gravitation, electricity, beauty, and 
wisdom, if he were not composed at 
bottom of substance, and power, 
and law, one and identical with 
these? 

7 If man did not stand connected 
in this sympathetic and actual re- 
lationship with molten fires in the 



NEW COLLECTION OF GOSPELS. 



347 



bosom of the globe, which shoot 
out in volcano 3 s, and crack the 
solid continents, man never would 
have had a revolution. 

8 If the solid rocks we tread had 
not,.' by the laws of disintegration 
and organization, ascended into the 
composition of the human structure, 
geology would be a sealed book, an 
impossible study to man. 

9 If the star-beam had never been 
wrought up into the composition of 
your baby in the cradle, he would 
never in his manhood see these 
glimmers through the midnight air. 
If the sunlight had never kissed it- 
self into the structural intelligence 
of your boy, he never would know 
of its existence, or feel its warmth, 
or recognize its beauty and power. 

10 How can that which is spirit, 
if it be totally different from matter, 
as. some have supposed, be connect- 
ed with matter ? What law exists 
between two unlike and opposite 
substances, which, as a chain, can 
unite these two extremes ? 

1-1 It is utterly impossible for God 
to make an eye unless he has the 
medium to do it through, and that 
medium is light. 

1 2 Suppose light is one kind of 
stuff, governed by one kind of laws, 
and the eye another kind of stuff, 
governed by another law, totally 
different from the light, can you get 
them together? There could be no 
sympathy between them. The eye 
would never know that there was 
any light, nor would the light make 
reflections on the eye. 

13 So I say of the eye, it is light 
gone into structure, on its road to 
consciousness ; that is to say, it is 
the function of light worked up 
into structure, in such a- shape that 
the next step inward is conscious- 
ness itself. 

14 Therefore I say unto you, the 
substance of the world is the in- 



telligence in the world; and that 
intelligence is revealed primarily, 
not to, but in man. Wherefore 
revelation is of two kinds — objec- 
tive and subjective ; or external and 
phenomenal, and interior, and sub- j 
stantial. 

15 Now what is inspiration? Is 
it not the cognition by the personal 
soul of the existence and flow of the 
Eternal ? It cometh from the rela- 
tion of the personal to the imper- 
sonal, of the relative to the abso- 
lute, of the dependent to the inde- 
pendent, of the shadow to the sub- 
stance. 

16 The painting on the canvas, or 
the musical composition, is man's 
effort to reduce his intuitions of per- 
fect beauty and of perfect harmony 
to expression. 

17 Is not consciousness itself self- 
cognition by substance? What is 
pure intelligence but simple self-ap- 
prehension by substance ? Exist- 
ence is notbeing — being is existence, 
apprehending the fact of existence, 
as also the qualities of such exist- 
ence. Pure intelligence is pure 
substance, knowing itself in 
esse. 

CHAPTER III. 

Hi coniinueth his discourse to the mul- 
titude in the grove. The history of 
man's spirit is the history of God, be- 
coming incarnated. No essential 
difference between phenomena and 
their causative principles. 

TVTO man can conceive two dis- 
-LN tinct and eternally different 
substances — spirit and matter — and 
get a live universe out of their 
union. For how can two eternally 
distinct and essentially different 
substances be brought together ? 

2 •' Deity" is infinite, according to 
popular theology. The Divine Attri- 
butes — " Ideas " — are everywhere 
present. Thus Love, Will, Wis- 
dom, Justice, Harmony, Holiness, 



us 



THE AEABTJLA. 



Beauty, and Perfection, are every- 
where present. They are in Na- 
ture. For what is so natural as that 
which is eternal — the uncreated ? 

3 The aim of science should he 
to fathom those hidden, secret, in- 
visible spiritual forces of which 
the suns and stars are the merest 
precipitations and residue. If there 
be a God, then "matter" is but 
spiritual sediment ; " suns " are 
only shadows of eternal Reason; 
ao that the spirit in Nature and in 
man is the only permanent, solid, 
and enduring substance. 

4 Nature gives us no beginning 
of love, law, light, or wisdom ; nor 
do we see, or perceive, either in 
the world of forms or in the world 
of Ideas — of Reason — any actual 
starting-point in the absolute order 
of things. True, special individuali- 
ties seem to appear from a certain 
point of local career ; and, indeed, 
the present forms of such appear- 
ance do begin ; but when we look 
for the connections and relations 
of these special forms, vie at once 
get swept into the vast cycles of uni- 
versal career, and by induction re- 
mount upward through geological 
and sidereal epochs, until we find 
ourselves contemplating the eter- 
nity of Spirit, of pure Reason, and 
the logical order of Ideas. 

5 The fraternity of souls and the 
paternity of God rests at last on the 
identity of the original substance of 
each being. If human spirits are 
the children of God — if the idea 
of the fatherhood of God be not a 
delusion — then the substance of the 
Creator is the foundation of each 
soul. Yea, the identity of the pri- 
mordial essence of the human and 
the Divine Spirit, is the only logical 
basis; and it is on this foundation 
alone that religion itself is possible. 

6 Infinite Spirit cannot be bounded 
or limited. It cannot take cogni- 



zance, therefore, of any thing differ- 
ent from itself, for it is " all in all." 
It cannot be a personality, because 
infinite individual is a contradiction 
in terms. 

7 For if God be Spirit and Infinite 
there is no room for any other sub- 
stance than spirit. Spirit is the 
primordial Power at the center, and 
the original substance at the foun- 
dation of the world. 

8 Personality, therefore, cannot 
be predicated of a Boundless Being, 
of the Infinite Beneficence. 

9 Individuality is, necessarily, re- 
lative and dependent, and pre-sup- 
poses the absolute and independent, 
which is Infinite Spirit, eternal law. 
But Infinite Spirit is absolute, not 
relative ; is independent, not limited. 

CHAPTER IV. 

After his preaching, he sendeth an 
epistle to the people ; and by it som e 
were persuaded, and some believed 
not. He openeth Ids subject to the 
wise men and chief priests ; but they 
hear him not, neither answer they 
him. He rebuketh the foolishness 
of false philosophy. lie denounceth 
superstition, and openeth eternity to 
mail's mind. 

THE first effort in the history of 
man is to unite science, phi- 
losophy, and religion into organic 
form, under the auspices of associa- 
tive action, such that all great 
reforms growing out of them, and 
out of the needs of man, can bo 
united together into one body and 
method, animated by one spirit, and 
aiming at one end — the whole good 
of man. 

2 Science cannot exhaust us ; ob- 
jects cannot, therefore, exhaust us. 
We have within us still the unsung 
powers of this Infinite Perfection, 
which will make us live and grow 
through all the rolling centuries 
of the great hereafter. 

3 Like Nature, our philosophy is 



NEW COLLECTION OF GOSPELS. 



349 



two-sided. It has facts by the 
million — facts which appeal to every 
possible condition of mind, from the 
most sensuous to the most spiritual- 
■'' minded ; while for the deep and 
' intuitive thinker it has the most 
transcendent and spiritual ideas. 
The unlettered can be surprised by 
the movement of a table without 
contact of visible power ; while 
under the inspiration of the gifted 
seer and poet, the great fields of 
eternal day break on our rapt vision. 
It opens on the one haud the great 
questions of physiological psycho- 
logy, and, on the other, the pro- 
found questions of transcendental 
theology. Hence it promises to 
reach all the world and every soul 
thereof. It is the democracy of 
religion and of philosophy com- 
bined. It is the Catholicism of na- 
tionalism., with a fact, an idea, a 
reason, and a symbol, for every 
possible mood of man. In bridging 
over the grave, it connects the 
poorest barefooted, ragged child of 
jearth — whose kindred watch him 
from the homes of the pure and the 
free, weeping when he strays, and 
rejoicing when he returns to the 
true path — with the highest arch- 
angel of the Summer Land. 

4 The first act of the Divine Intel- 
ligence, as it appears in man's per- 
sonality, is avast synthetic intuition, 
involving a revelation of two worlds 
— the world of manifestations and 
the world of inter-conscious Ideas. 
The fact of sensation pre-supposes 
the reality of these coequal worlds. 

( Hence the folly of' the war of the 
"Idealists" and "Sensualists" of 
modern Europe. 

5 Nothing can precede eternal 
dynamics. Nothing can . antedate 
everlasting Ideas, which are arche- 
types of worlds. 

(5 The idealism of Berkeley, which 
reduced all the external world to a 



mere phantasm of sensation; to a 
mere picture on the nerves of the 
body, whose cause was forever shut 
away from our reach; and the 
Pantheism of Spinoza, or more 
especially of his one-sided disciples, 
here find their grave, in common 
with that subjective Idealism of 
Spencer, Sir William Hamilton, and 
Mr. Mansel, which is of late so 
much in vogue. Sensationalism 
has a half truth ; Idealism has a 
half truth ; Pantheism has another 
half truth: but so long as each 
claimed to be the only truth, all 
were false in a doublo sense, and 
blind. The truth in each of these 
schools is revived, emancipated, and 
united in the Hramonial Philosophy. 

7 Demonstrate the naturalness of 
spiritual forces and laws, and the 
realm of the divine is brought 
within reach of science. Science 
may then push its discoveries up 
into the immortal world; may — 
must — link the two worlds toge- 
ther in the bonds of a scientific as 
well as sacred fellowship, and so 
banish all hobgoblins, all ghosts, 
all superstitions, and all senseless 
religious fanaticism from the 
world. 

8 Worlds come from suns, suns 
from vaster suns, and all, at first, 
from that burning vortex of eternal 
light in which converge the infinite 
laws of Pure Intelligence. This 
focus is the vortex through which 
the Ideas of Pure Eeason rush forth 
into cosmic chronology, just as the 
human spirit is the other vortex of 
life through which these worlds rush 
upward into love, will, wisdom, 
philosophy. 

9 I deny that a rock is a sub- 
stance ; I deny that a tree is a sub- 
stance. Yet, on the other hand, I 
affirm the outward world to be real. 
I am not a Berkeleian, because I 
affirm the external world to be a 



350 



THE ARABITLA. 



real world. But it is a real phe- 
nomenon only. 

10 I never realized more thor- 
oughly than at this hour, that the 
world that men regard as so sub- 
stantial, is only a world of shadow. 
These outside forms and facts are 
nothing but phenomena. 

11 When we perceive the unity 
of nature; when we regard the 
mutual transformability of bodies, 
and of all forces ; when we discover 
in the analyzed sunbeam and star- 
beam the elements which have 
been precipitated and hardened into 
rocks, and coal, and iron, and other 
metals ; when we behold every- 
where the reign of the same in- 
visible power, ever changing in 
form, but ever the same in esse — the 
soul is carried on and on in the 
tide of inspiration, up to the same 
great central conception that spirit 
"is all, and in all." 

12 Substance is necessarily eter- 
nal ; phenomena necessarily limited 
in time and space. 

13 Induction deals only with shad- 
ows ; deals only with form, not 
substance: deals only with phe- 
nomenalities. 

14 The universe swings between 
these two vortices : First, down- 
ward and outward, into forms of 
appearance ; second, upward and 
inward — into thought, into con- 
sciousness, into eternal Light. 

15 Does any one suppose that men 
first inferred that there was such a 
thing as love by induction? No ! 
the human heart loves as spontane- 
ously as the bird sings, because it 
cannot help it. 

16 By induction we learn, from 
the present state of the rocks, that, 
though now so solid, they were 
once fluid. Then we find that the 
whole earth was a fire-mist; and, 
following the same inductive lead, 
where can we stop ? 



CHAPTER Y. 
Selden preacheth in the great cities, 
and pleadeth the cause of ministering 
spirits, and encourageih all men to 
seek the truth for its oxen sake. He 
declareth the aims of spiritualism, 
and calleth upon all men to behold 
the light. 

NATURE is a unity — an undi- 
vided empire; and to him 
who affirms the God in it, there is 
no escape from the spiritual fra- 
ternity of all things, and of all 
spheres of being. Spiritual Com- 
munion is the glorious flower of all 
religious experience; the answer to 
all prayer; the ultimate of all study, 
the goal of all science and scholar- 
ship. 

2 Spirit is the foundation of all 
things; continued inspiration from 
God the one condition of all life, 
high and low, and hence commun- 
ion with Nature, universal. There 
is no world too fine for the spirit in 
man ; no angel too pure to work 
for us earthlings ; and no spiritual 
aristocracy allowable in this God's 
world. 

3 " Man lives in two worlds at 
once," said an ancient seer. 
" Forms are but images of ideas," 
said an immortal soul, fresh from 
the spirit land. 

4 The only real substance in man 
is that divine intelligence which, 
operating from within through the 
senses, fills the body with light, 
compared to which the light of suns 
and stars is dim indeed. It is that 
light of wisdom which illumines 
the pathway of planets and holds 
worlds in order and orbit. 

5 Believe me, brethren, there is a 
grander world than that in which 
these shadows dance across the 
sensible horizon; there is a diviner 
life, a serener consciousness, a 
more golden condition, than that of 
the body and its relations to the 
world. 



NEW COLLECTION OF GOSPELS. 



351 



6 Spiritualism is the only resort 
of all Christian progressives, who 
hold on to the idea of G-od, and in 
the possibility of a natural divine 
life ; and Atheism is the only resort 
of all those who cannot so hold on. 

7 Just where Spiritualism differs 
from Theology it agrees with the 
religion of Jesus. It is alive, fresh, 
spontaneous, progressive. 

8 But what is the genius, spirit, 
scope of the great Spiritual Move- 
ment? What are its ideas, methods, 
sources of power, and aims? Is it 
all confined to the fact of inter- 
course between the two worlds ? 
Nay, far from it. 

9 He who accepts the fact of 
spiritual intercourse, must take all 
that goes logically with that fact as 
part of the truth of the whole 
Movement. 

10 Spiritualism shows how the 
career of a soul in this life affects 
its condition in the next. Is it not 
proper, then, for it to deal with the 
conditions of this life ? 

11 We felt that the ministering 
angels of the spiritual world in- 
spired and pushed us on to the 
work, as well as the deep voice of 
our inmost spiritual nature. 

12 Our aim is the attainment of 
that " perfection and truthfulness 
of mind which is the secret intention 
of Nature." Verily, our aim is too 
large to admit a creed or sect. 

13 We hold that the "chief end 
of man " is the highest and most 
harmonious development of all the 
powers of life to a complete and 
consistent whole. 

• 14 We do not wish to get " set- 
tled" or "fixed." There is no 
more hope of a society than of a 
person when it becomes " fixed." 

15 We have not sought to found 
a sect or to establish a creed. We 
seek no coerced uniformity of opin- 



tion around the empire of independ- 
ent thought ; we dictate no terms 
of belief ; we establish no religious . 
or ecclesiastical Sanhedrim. 

16 Every argument that can be 
brought to sustain the popular re- 
ligion, is stronger when applied to. 
the great spiritual religion. It is 
said Jesus was inspired, communed 
with angels, was strengthened by 
them, healed the sick by the laying 
on of hands, read the hearts of 
men, opened the eyes of the blind, 
and hence that his religion is 
divinely revealed? We reply, So 
do hundreds of spiritual mediums. 
Did the disciples speak in unknown 
tongues ? So do spiritual mediums 
— by the thousand. Was Jesus 
and the disciples persecuted? So 
are mediums. Are spiritual me- 
diums accused of every wicked- 
ness ? So were the disciples. 

17 The breadtli of our purpose is 
parallel to the very purpose of the 
providence of God, as displayed in 
the history of the human race ; for, 
what else than the complete educa- 
tion of man' can be considered as 
an adequate aim for the providence 
of history ? , 

CHAPTER VI. 

Again he preacheth to a great multitude 
beyond the Alleghanies. The Spirit 
of prophecy possesseth him, and he 
lifteth up his voice against the Baby- 
lon of Supe7'naturalism. He speaketh 
in plain tongues. lie succeedeth in 
afflicting all the disciples of "• Peace' 1 '' 
who heard him. But he strengthened 
theyoung men, and counseleth eternal 
resistance to the imps of tyranny. 

RELIGION and Philosophy are 
both possible to man only be- 
cause he is whatever God and truth 
are. Light and love could not pour 
into us, unless we were built of both 
light and love, and so could draw 
both from the deeps of the universe 
by native attraction. As the solid 
earth is but precipitated sunbeams 



352 



THE ARABULA. 



so the nature of man is organized 
spirit. The body is but the secreted 
shell of the soul. Our proper self is 
vpure spirit — pure as God. To feel 
and to realize our native divinity, 
is the only true method of salva- 
tion, and the aim of philosophy. 

2 Brethren, our word to you is, 
"Come up higher;" leave for a 
little time your dusty libraries, step 
out under the stars and open your 
eyes, and you will then find that no 
ism can command the soul of this 
rising world. 

3 When souls awake, thrones and 
oligarchies crumble in ruin ; Liber- 
ty, Equality, and Education become 
the watchwords of the race. From 
the rising consciousness of the de- 
mocracy of souls comes the demand 
for " equality of all before the law," 
and the consequent enfranchise- 
ment of woman, of labor, and of the 
negro. Society is being remolded ; 
creeds are falling to ruins ; princi- 
ples lead the march of nations. And 
all this because the era of spiritual 
fraternity has dawned in society, 
arid unfolded a Spiritual Philosophy 
of religion. 

4 The gospel of this epoch is for 
progress — for the enfranchisement 
of woman, and her admission, on 
terms of equality with man, to all 
the rights, privileges, and immuni- 
ties of life. It demands justice to 
all classes of citizens. It calls on 
government to make all equal be- 
fore the law. It opens itself to 
science and philosophy, and all 
truth, from every quarter of the 
globe. 

5 While in religion, the advent 
of the Spiritual Dispensation, eman- 
cipating millions in our own land 
as well as in Europe ; the decay of 
the Papal hierarchy, and revival of 
the spirit of art, and its consecra- 
tion to Nature, attests the immense 
activity and spiritual energy of this 



century. All these facts are the 
sure signs of coming benefits. 

6 The greatness of antiquity 
stands eclipsed before the prowess 
of this time ! The control of steam 
and of lightning, the laying of the 
Atlantic Cable, the emancipation 
of the American Eepublic, the 
downfall of Russian serfdom, and 
the political resurrection of Italy, 
are among the marvels of but a few 
years in this century. 

7 Supernaturalism is now rapidly 
sinking into hopeless decrepitude 
and remediless decay. Under the 
influence of liberal scholarship, free 
thought, fearless criticism, and the 
great Spiritual Movement, joined 
with the late discoveries in science, 
popular theology is being actually 
destroyed. 

8 And yet this same Supernatu- 
ralism, with its tyrant God, its de- 
spair of man, its chronic distrust of 
human nature, its curses on the 
human heart, its worn-out creed 
and ritual, its " infallible Bible," its 
priestly aristocracy, "chanting dam- 
nation hymns over dead babies," 
with its subjugation of slaves to 
masters and of women to their 
husbands, its Jesuitism, and its 
horrid lust after political power and 
authority, is aiming to become the reli- 
gion of the Eepublic ! 

9 The time has arrived, say the 
popular " evangelical " divines, 
when the affairs of government are 
to be taken out of the hands of the 
"ungodly," and to be administered 
by "the saints" — i. e., by them- 
selves, or by their supporters. 

10 Behold, the seventh great reli- 
gious revolution of the world is 
upon us. Brahminism, Buddhism, 
Judaism, Classicalism, Mohamme- 
danism, and even modern Christian- 
ity, are, regarding their claims, only 
failures. All have failed to save 
man from ignorance, crime, war, 



NEW COLLECTION OF GOSPELS. 



353 



slavery, and woe. Now, the race 
advances either to Atheism or to a 
universal Spiritualism. 

11 Millions of men and women 
have believed these things with all 
their might, and yet their lives have 
been the purest of the pure, the 
truest of the true, and, like fair 
trees, have blossomed sweetly 
forth on every side with fair hu- 
manities, and bent beneath a golden 
weight of love. But were they so 
because of their belief? No, but in 
spite of it. 

12 ¥e do not forget the history 
of sects, creeds, and ecclesiastical 
despotisms on the one side ; neither 
do we neglect to note the anarchy 
and isolation of absolute individual- 
ism on the other. 

13 Religious anarchy has nearly 
come again. It was not till the old 
world was reduced to a similar 
chaos, that the Divine voice said, 
" Let there be light." 

14 The spirit of nature is always 
fixing and unfixing things, molding 
and remolding over and over her 
forms of inanimate and animate 
being; continual flux and reflux 



keeps ocean, air, and stars pure, 
lifegiving, and beneficent. 

15 The wrecks of the old institu- 
tions floating around us, attest that 
the currents of Spiritual power have 
risen to high-water mark, and will, 
out of their sediment, create a fairer 
world. 

1 6 That holy " Providence "which 
guides justice and liberty to victory 
is the "Providence" of armies of 
angels, inspired and sent down to 
us by the eternal decrees of the 
Infinite Eeason. 

IT At last the whole human race 
shall break away from idolatries, 
bibliolatrous creeds, and church 
craft, and, uniting, build the temple 
of a World-Religion out of blocks 
of solid Light, quarried from the 
zenith of Eternal Love, Liberty, and 
Law. 

18 A day will come to every soul, 
when into the channels of its puri- 
fied being will pour the Love, 
the Truth, and the Beauty of the 
world. 

19 To be passive to the spirit of 
Nature is the secret of genius, and 
the path of salvation. 



THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO 

ST. LOTTA. 



CHAPTER I. 

Zotta, the prophetess, leaveth her home 
for a time, and, under the inspirations 
of Ardbula, carrieth the tidings of 
angels to multitudes. She presenteth 
the wonders of Beauty, and sheweth 
that it is prophetic. 

ALL are lovers of Beauty, ac- 
cording to their several 



powers of appropriating that deli- 
cate emanation from the all-forming 
Spirit. 

2 The plowboy, as he follows, all 
day long, the dull motions of the 
laboring ox, has in his mind some 
fairer image than his eye beholds, 
in which his thoughts find a con- 



354: 



THE AEABULA. 



tinual joy, or toward which his 
memory recurs with a renewed de- 
light. 

3 The youth who climbs the labo- 
rious steeps of knowledge, or walks 
trie lowly paths of ordinary toil, has 
yet au eye for finer vision than ap- 
pears. Some grace not obvious 
shines in the dull drilled lessons — 
some beautiful form of the fancy 
floats in his day-dreams, and 
hovers still more palpably in the 
hushed slumbers of the night. 

4 The rude, frank-hearted sailor, 
fighting his defiant way against the 
storms of heaven and the wild 
wrath of waters, keeps in his heart 
an image, fair to him. and so full 
of controlling beauty that his eye 
sees her, calm and unrippled as the 
sleeping Halcyon, between the 
groaning planks and the roaring 
deep. She flutters through his 
brain, an image of delight, in the 
calm hours of the solitary watch ; 
and when his eye gloats on the 
beauty of a favorite ship, its every 
curve and undulation, through all a 
perfect model is rounded to some 
graceful semblance to his heart's 
idol. 

5 This universal attraction toward 
the Beautiful is perhaps the deepest 
in our natures, and surely is the 
strongest element in molding rude, 
half-fashioned souls to the sym- 
metry of the cultivated spirit. 

6 It is the first gleam of "light" 
in the night of barbaric ages, where 
the dark-minded savage, in his in- 
stinctive desire to please, puts on 
some shining bauble, and feels less 
a savage in the contemplation of its 
glitter. 

7 At that moment there gleams 
upon him, could he but understand 
it, a true flash from the tremendous 
portals of all future attainments. 
That sparkle of clear crystal is a 
predictive beam from the morning 



star of his immortal day. From that 
point his course is onward, upward, 
through the slow ascending grades 
of an everlasting progress, taking 
in the whole broad range of civili- 
zation and the arts, of mental cul- 
ture and the soul's tuition. 

CHAPTER II. 

Her thankfulness for the universal love 
of Beauty. She witnesseth the Divine 
Providence even in the heart of sav- 
ages. The world's bibles are records 
of mans early glimpses of the heaven- 
ly life. 

THE prophetic desire for some- 
thing fairer, letter than his 
lot — something with an ideal or 
extrinsic value — is shown by the 
savage in his taste for the glittering 
and gaudy. Jewels are his step- 
ping-stones to heaven. 

2 So, too, after all our progress, 
the highest conceptions of the 
future heaven have been expressed, 
and are still symbolized, by the 
same jewels which the rude barba- 
rian loved. 

3 The intimate cord is not broken. 
The hand of the swarthy savage is 
clearly visible, reaching up from 
the rudeness of his undeveloped life 
to grasp the splendors of his future 
patrimony. 

4 The vitality of these symbols 
may be justly attributed, in a good 
degree, to the intrinsic beauty of the 
objects, and their permanent, inde- 
structive nature. 

5 Time will not tarnish them ; 
their undecaying luster shines on 
after many generations, as it shone 
on the first possessor. 

6 The diamonds of Haroun al 
Raschid glitter on Victoria's dia- 
dem. The blood-red garnets of the 
Indian Krishna — the swart, vo- 
luptuous Venus of the East — burn 
on the bosom of the fair and pure 
young vestals in the chapels of the 
Cross. 



NEW COLLECTION OF GOSPELS. 



355 



7 It is fitting that a visible immu- 
tability of Beauty should, be the 
symbols of the unseen, eternal 
glory. 

8 But another cause shares the 
honor with this in giving endurance 
to the heavenly significance of 
gems. The first prophets were 
Orientals, Sons of the Sun, and 
dwellers on a soil rich with ripe 
crvsrallizations of its many-colored 
light. 

9 They were, too, the simple first 
men, full of the growing sense of 
a nascent progress, full of the child- 
like, barbaric taste for jewels, the 
brilliant and the dazzling. 

10 Our bibles are the outpourings 
of the child-heart of the world, 
thrilling with the first insight of the 
immeasurable destiny of the soul, 
and the inexpressible glories which 
were hi store for it. 

1 1 In the deep enthusiasm of that 
inflow of divine life, they called up 
all the glories of the visible world, 
their dazzling gems and symbols of 
royalty, to give some adequate ex- 
pression to their visions of the in- 
visible and future. 

12 First impulses are strongest ; 
first enthusiasm is most unbounded, 
and deals in glowing hyperboles. 

13 Hence, the gorgeousness and 
dignity of the elder prophecies of 
the spiritual have scarcely been 
transcended by the brightest con- 
ceptions of the advanced teachers 
in later years — by none, perhaps, 
till the dawning of this new spirit- 
ual age, so little appreciated and 
so much discussed. 

CHAPTER III. 

The prophetess again lifteth up her 
eyes, and portrayeth the, physical 
glories of the ancient apocalyptic 
heaven. She dUcerneth the beautiful 
within that relic of barbarism. Her 
eyes were open, and yet she saic not 
" a mighty strong angel with a book in 
his hand.'"' 



THE deep significance of beauty. 
and the supreme beauty of 
if the world to come" — which verily 
has come to thousands yet in the 
flesh — have not been without their 
witnesses long before our era. 

2 You have heard from a multi- 
tude of pulpits the glowing picture 
of " the heaven " that, through 
many forms of worship, all hearts 
aspire to. 

3 And all that the most gorgeous 
imagery could do, to paint and glo- 
rify and exalt that picture, has been 
done in reiterated poetry and elo- 
quence ; till the image is crowded 
with dazzling jewels that -blind the 
gazer, and stiffen the form it would 
illustrate, like some barbarian prin- 
cess cumbered with blazing gems 
that mar her natural grace and 
beauty. 

4 We have seen gifted teachers 
revel in the eastern splendors of 
that glorious city of God, the New 
Jerusalem, whose vast transparent 
cube shone from the heavens on 
the rapt eyes of John in his Apo- 
calypse. 

5 G-lance for a moment at that 
glorious picture, full of barbaric 
wealth — the dazzling splendor of 
the Orient — mixed with the high, 
wild fancies of a mystic enthusiast. 

6 There glow the " twelve founda- 
tions" of its jasper walls, the first 
like the vast wail itself, a solid 
jasper, mingling its lucid green 
with the green earth it settled on, 
and guarding the redeemed, with 
its strong counter-charms, from the 
most subtile wiles of the tempter, 
the fatal sorceries of the enemy. 

7 There the clear sapphire sheds its 
purpling azure, dropping with gold. 

8 There glows the sciutillant 
chalcedony, crowned with green 
emeralds flashing light, like that 
which shoots to the pale chambers 
of the ocean. 



356 



THE ARABULA. 



9 The sardonyx gleams half in- 
carnadine, like fire through pearl 
and black onyx; the deep tinted 
sardius sparkles with luminous 
darkness like a midnight sky, or 
the unfathomable eyes of houris 
to the heroes of Islam. 

10 The golden chrysolite — trans- 
parent gold indeed, mighty to con- 
quer the keen pangs of thirst — 
blazes like a new sun around the 
holy place, where souls shall thirst 
no more. 

11 Above it shimmers the faint 
beryl's sea-green lucidness, deepen- 
ing upward to the topaz hues, and 
growing yet more golden in the 
mingled gold and green of the clear 
chrysoprasus. 

12 And, crowning these, the 
jacinth flashes with pale violet 
beams that make earth's lightning- 
flash a harmless meteor play, and 
guards the jeweled wearer against 
pestilence, and lures to quiet slum- 
ber — fit jewel for the walls of that 
bright city, where no more are suf- 
fering and death, and where He 
who rules and watches " giveth his 
beloved sleep." 

1 3 One living amethyst crowns all 
with its deep violet, fabled on earth 
to guard against inebriation — safe- 
guard in heaven against the wine- 
cup of the wrath of God. 

14 The redeemed of the Lord 
walk in white garments through 
the golden streets; golden harps 
are in their hands, palms of victory 
wave on the vibrating air with the 
wide pulses of their loud hosan- 
nas, golden crowns are on their 
heads, and a perpetual song is on 
their tongues: " Glory to God and 
to the Lamb forever." 

15 Such images have survived the 
very creeds that they glorified — the 
very gods they were made to glo- 
rify ; and yet, with all their splen- 
dor, they may bo transcended; yea, 



a more lovely heaven, a more true, 
a more beautiful spirit-realm has 
been revealed to us of the new dis- 
pensation. 

CHAPTER IV. 

Tlie people, admire the wisdom and 
beauty of her words ; a few only gave 
heed to the power and good of her 
utterances. She complaineth not. 
She discourseth on, and sheweth the 
difference between things and ideas. 

VERILY, the white arms of one 
loving angel — one wingless 
and warm with human sweetness — 
twined round a lowlier brother or 
sister soul, leading it up to more 
pure delight, and therefore to more 
purity, is a far richer picture, trans- 
cending the pearl-gated, gem-walled 
heavens, as far as human love sur- 
passes wealth in true worth. 

2 All that mechanic glory, the old 
masonic splendor, dazzles and con- 
founds us. But this human tender- 
ness attracts and warms us. 

3 Our new heaven — which the 
ignorant or perverse characterized 
as earthly and gross, and unworthy 
the name of heaven — is spiritual, 
airy, fragrant, natural, and sweet. 

4 Its grace and warmth, its fine- 
ness, its naturalness, its freedom 
and delight, are like a home — love- 
ly for its home nature : whilst the 
old rectangular, metallic heaven 
seems so mechanical and artificial, 
that all its splendid symbolism is 
lost upon the heart. 

5 St. Augustine tells us in vain 
that the gems of " the twelve foun- 
dations are the virtues of the re- 
deemed." 

6 Human hearts love human 
hearts, but jewels they only admire. 

1 Green valley-paths and bright 
flowers are akin to our sympathies. 
They have ardor and beauty at 
once, and the heart can reposo 
among them as with companions, 
whose radiant faces are yet more 



NEW COLLECTION OF GOSPELS. 



357 



beautiful with affection. But by 
the splendor of gems we are only 
awakened to admiration — still feel- 
ing a want their glitter reaches not. 
as if we sat down before a splendid 
face which lacked the redeeming 
graces of the soul and heart. 

8 Such is the radical difference be- 
tween symbols, and the realities or 
ideas they symbolize. Truly seen, 
they are the soul's effort to express 
to the senses what belongs to its 
own unutterable experiences and 
ineffable surroundings. 

CHAPTER T. 

Tlie light shineth down through her eyes 
into h*r soul, making her face to 
beam tcith a wondrous radiance. 
The people marveled greatly. She 
beheld and described the glory of the 
Jfena Heaven, 

THE beauties of the spiritual, 
as developed by the higher 
souls in all ages — whether we ac- 
cept their words as a literal trans- 
cript of distinct existences in 
proper form, or as types by which 
the superior spheres are pictured to 
our understanding — are still divisi- 
ble into two grand classes. They 
are, first, the physical beauties of 
the higher sphere ; and second, what 
are properly the moral, pertaining 
to spirit inherently. 

2 Xo one can conceive of a soul 
without surroundings. It cannot 
exist unless it exists somewhere, with 
attending circumstances. 

3 It may be possible for a fanciful 
intellect to suppose these circum- 
stances to be ideas of the seer, or 
the scene flung round him as ob- 
jects, to relieve the mind from the 
painful sense of vacuity and contra- 
diction, which a solitary existence, 
an existence existing nowhere — 
that is, standing in no relation to 
any other order of beings — would 
present. 

4 Such fancies are too fine-strung 



and intangible to really satisfy one 
for a moment. 

5 If there is no reality to our ter- 
restrial surroundings, we might 
understand how the beautiful land- 
scape which surrounds the freed 
soul might also be unreal. 

6 But we shall not give up clay, 
and iron, and wood, at the challenge 
of bishop or priest ; nor the ethe- 
real groves and plains of the spirit 
realms, at the summons of any 
canonical or uncanonical skeptics. 

7 Existing in and floating with the 
atmosphere of worlds, is the true 
local heaven — or the dwelling of 
freed souls, whose luminous affini- 
ties attract them upward. 

8 Over the broad landscape of 
this other world, there are the 
most beautiful plains, enameled 
with flowers of perpetual bloom 
and fragrance ; glorious rivers wind 
out among the undulating hills, and 
the murmur of their waters is ar- 
ticulate music and song; clear in 
the depths below gem-like pebbles 
glitter, the golden and silver fishes 
glide ; while purest forms of angelic 
beings bathe in the waters that all 
around them seem to take a roseate 
flush from the lucid limbs and 
glorious forms they embrace. 

9 The polish of the many-colored 
foliage makes the deep woods yield 
no shadows, but only mellowed 
light. 

10 The birds are of a richer 
plumage than any upon earth, and 
all are songsters with diversal 
melodies, making one vast har- 
mony. 

11 There are no noxious insects, 
beasts, or birds, in all these upper 
countries. They are confined to 
the subterranean realm. 

12 The songs of birds are transla- 
table into human speech, by souls 
attuned to the melody they pour. 

13 There is nothing of the abrupt 



358 



THE ARABTJLA. 



and harsh, precipitous and rude, 
which mark the grandeur of our 
landscape ; but all is mellowed and 
softened, without diminishing the 
majesty of the scene. 

14 All is intensely beautiful, un- 
dulating, free, and perfect, and 
transparent to the eye of mortals, 
nay, to all eyes. 

15 But, to the spiritual eye, it is 
enriched with thousand-colored 
shadings, which in pure beauty 
surpass almost infinitely the fairest 
pencilings of art. 

16 Highest poetry has sometimes 
drawn from this sphere the glimpse- 
seen glories, to intensify the scene- 
ry of its earth-pictures ; and a few 
inspired musicians have caught the 
actual notes that vibrate in that far 
tingling air. 

17 It seems as if this spirit land 
might be the divine image or ante- 
type toward which the rude mass 
ot earth ripens in its slow centuries, 
and that an age may come when 
the earth and the heavens shall 
embrace and form one translucent 
sphere. 

18 To many minds these inde- 
scribable glories of the bright super- 
physical surroundings of the en- 
franchised soul are not objective 
forms, but mere associate idealities. 
I behold them to be both. 

19 Seers have gone over their 
beautiful hills and vales, hand in 
hand, and seen the same bright 
images ; returned unto the same 
localities after long absence, found 
such changes as progressive forms 
must undergo, but with such re- 
semblance as fixed localities would 
keep. 

20 And so might one in dream 
landscape. So might two, possibly, 
if in perfect magnetic relations to 
each other. 

21 But not so should we find, as 
we do find, an almost universal like- 



ness of general description, in endless 
variety of minor detail, of this 
wonder-world. 

CHAPTER VI. 

Her eyes, being full of the light of 
Arabula, behold the more exalted 
attractions of heaven. She proclaim- 
eth the prevalence of Charity among 
the inhabitants of the Summer Land. 
And denounceth the eternal psalm- 
singing heaven of crude religionirts. 

FROM the physical, I turn to 
the second class of beauties, 
which are more widely recognized 
as "spiritual:" I mean the moral 
traits. 

2 It is the privilege of a favored 
few to see those delicate aromal 
forms of bird, and tree, and flash- 
ing river; but any pure soul, any 
true heart, is open to these nobler 
forms of spiritual existence — may 
catch some inspiration from their 
presence, and shape their growing 
lives by the sublimer types of 
Beauty which they offer. 

3 The moral beauties, like the 
physical, are common to both 
spheres, with the same difference 
of finer development, of more 
ethereal and pure natures — the 
same mellowing of the rugged and 
abrupt, the softening to intenser 
life of the thunderous elements of 
this lower world. 

4 Many creeds have left "no 
room in heaven " for the most 
beautiful features of the human 
soul — the finest impulses of the 
sanctified. 

5 But we have assurance, sweet 
as immortality itself, that there is 
no death for the soul's whole attri- 
butes, none for the heart's holy 
affections. 

6 The propensities are all hallow- 
ed in purified natures, and have a 
position assigned them correspond- 
ing to their exalted and refined 
characters ; in which they are de- 



NEW COLLECTION OF GOSPELS. 



359 



veloped in harmony with the whole 
soul, and are gratified as divinely 
as the inclinations to worship and 
gratitude. 

7 Spirits love with a white and 
beautiful love, and twine their 
several elements, purely, warmly, 
into one wreathed gladness of 
whole heart and mind. 

8 This love is a transparent 
passion, seeking not the vail of a 
concealment that it cannot need ; 
and if it flush, it is but the quicker 
flow of the pure blood to a more 
vivid delight, with no taint of earth- 
liness. 

9 They walk with fair arms inter- 
twined, under the eye of God. 
And you would only know by the 
transfigured beauty of their faces, 
and by the heightened glow of all 
their radiant forms, that a more 
deep and hallowed relation existed 
between the wedded twain than 
that which binds all lovely souls to 
all as lovely. 

10 I cannot linger now to read to 
you this mystery of spirit-marriage, 
or what it is, or how it should be 
named on earth. I only see a two- 
fold unity that is beautiful — trans- 
cendingly and purely beautiful. 

11 But the crowning excellence 
of this celestial sphere, and which 
distinguishes the souls of the just 
from the dark spirits below — and 
marks the difference between our 
visions of the heavens from all 
revelations hitherto — is the high, 
paramount prominence, which is 
awarded to the great love-element 
of universal charity. 

1 2 Here we find no loud eternity of 
idle harping and perpetual song; 
no cruel transports of unpitying 
delight over the ever-ascending 
smoke of a brother's torment; no 
dreamless slumber of an everlasting 
repose ; no drowsy revelings in the 
lotus-dreams of an eternal voluptu- 



ousness ; no heaven of beatific sen- 
sualism, where, bright and beauti- 
ful, ten thousand houris minister to 
the royal pleasure of a single hero 
— hero no longer in his luxurious 
abode ; no airy Valhalla, where the 
ghosts of warriors drink the foam- 
ing mead, and clash their resound- 
ing arms in day-long wassailing 
and the fabled tales of heroes; 
though all these images are humane- 
ly acceptable, as types of the ever- 
acknowledged fact that souls in 
heaven are intrinsically and essen- 
tially what they are on earth, only 
perfecting there the ideal of all ex- 
cellence here. 

CHAPTER VII. 
She lifteth up her voice before a great 
multitude, and pictureththe natural- 
ness of the New heaven ; and telleth 
of the glorious icorks of love performed 
by angels for the low and fallen of 
earth. And in her vision she beheld 
the Lyceum children in the Summer 
Land. 

MOREOVER, our new heaven 
infringes not on the domain 
of any other heaven. Ours is that 
vast unclaimed — the heart's unex- 
plored realm of generous ivork — of 
work that blesses others and de- 
lights the doer. 

2 The inhabitants of that beauti- 
ful domain are souls that keep their 
warm love and the blessed sympa- 
thies which made them so beautiful 
on earth — higher, and deeper, and 
broader, there, making them still 
more beautiful. 

3 No heart could retain its best 
and loveliest element in a home of 
delight from which it knew a fellow 
heart was excluded; and to be 
ignorant of a brother's fate were a 
loss, and, to souls of an high order, 
an impossibility. 

4 I pray that I may not forget 
erring and wandering souls in the 
brightest hour that ever dawns 
upon my spirit. 



360 



THE ARABTJLA. 



5 The revelations of these last 
years show us how to reconcile the 
beatified soul's completeness with 
the fact of souls in gloom and 
misery. 

6 In bringing the wanderer back 
to light, in breathing hope and 
cheer into hearts yet repining in 
their clay, in pouring promise down 
the dark abysses of despair and 
pain— in this work the souls of the 
redeemed find their best delight, 
and deeds of mercy make the hea- 
ven they people with all renovated 
lives. 

1 Could they who seek the desert 
sands, and scour Golconda for the 
types of beauty to adorn their 
heavens, see for one moment the 
pure face of a commissioned angel, 
as he brings glad tidings to the 
weary heart and hope to the be- 
nighted wanderer, they would learn 
well the meaning of those words, 
" The Beauty of Holiness." 

8 The flashing jewels of a queen's 
tiara shed no luster on her brow, 
like that which pure love lends the 
stooping forehead of an angel sister ; 
as the light of her deep eye thrills 
down the depths of a brother's 
agony, with healing in its beams. 

9 The regal purple of King Solo- 
mon in all his glory, stiff with bar- 
baric pearl and gold, arrayed him 
not in beauty to compare with the 
pure lilies that bloom white and 
flushed with tender love on the twin 
cheeks of my little angel brother. 

10 The sunshine quivering through 
rose petals on a translucent pearl, 
might faintly image the clear, rich 
beauty of his tiny hand, pressed on 
my burning forehead in the hour of 
pain ; but not that blushing pearl, 
nor the more glorious hand, could 
lend an image of the inward beauty 
which inspired that act — his young, 
pure, everlasting love, whoso touch 
is healing and delight. 



11 The dance of happy children 
in their rosy heaven, as their light 
feet trip pattering like the rain, 
and sparkling rain-like in the har- 
monious air — their twining arms, 
round, dimpling, clear, and warm 
— their universally deep bright 
eyes, that speak more life and hap- 
piness than even angel's tongues can 
utter — and the wreathed melody 
of motion that winds in and out, 
around each other in interminable 
mazes, never broken, never jarring 
on the joyous cadence of their 
linked utterances — these make a 
picture which might once have 
driven dumb the favored poet who 
should have caught the vision, and 
swooned in mute despair of breath- 
ing into song its unutterable beauty. 

12 Yet all this grace and beauty 
is but a language in the heaven — 
speaking in symbolic glories of the 
ineffable light, and joy, and crown- +, 
ing love of their young lives. 

CHAPTER VIII. 

The transforming power of love is de- 
scribed, and the prophetess giveth the 
people a new definition of worship as 
it is in the heavenly state. She 
calleth upon the celestial hosts to visit 
the pieople of earth. The real living 
angels have no wings. She exhorteth 
all mankind to open their eyes to the 
" light,' 1 '' and, to doubt not. 

HAVE you not seen how a most 
beautiful face grows more 
intensely beautiful with deep 
thought? How even conquered 
suffering, and the soul's hard-earn- 
ed victory over loss, desolation, and 
woe, can make the calm eye like a 
spirit's, and the pale cheek radiant 
with more than earthly physical . 
beauty ? l 

2 With a far more prevailing 
power, the soul in light shapes the 
obedient features of its vesture, the 
spirit-body, which in cumbers it not. 

3 Every sweet thought is a lino 
of beauty to the fluctuant form. 



NEW COLLECTION OF GOSPELS. 



361 



4 Every noble impulse shapes the 
dilatedfigure to a grander expression 
of its strength, beauty, and grace. 

5 Every beat of the heart of love 
and holy sympathy flushes the re- 
motest limb with rcse-light, and a 
deeper meaning glows in the light- 
est face, and burns far back in the 
deep crystal of the glorious eyes. 
The worship which goes on forever 
— in every act — and in every word, 
and in every thought, and even in 
the unconscious motions of their 
lives — gives an all -hallo wing sweet- 
ness to their every look. 

6 This beautiful, natural life, 
speaks no fear, no crouching vas- 
salage of soul, but a deep, natural, 
filial love, that so involves and per- 
meates all the being, that existence 
with them can be nothing less 
than "worship" — an expression 
meaning naught else but high aspi- 
ration and unceasing praise to the 
all-loving Father. 

7 They do his work on earth, and 
in the nether spheres ; and this is 
joy — this is life ; this, the immortal 
heaven of souls who have gone up 
from suffering to delight. 

8 And in the joy of their great 
ransom, knowing how grateful is 
unexpected kindness, how inex- 
pressibly dear is guardian love, 
they can never forget from whence 
they came, nor the pained, strug- 
gling souls that lift their eyes to 
the blank heaven with such 
hushed agony of mute beseeching, 

16 



where, thanks to the new light 
they find the heavens no longer 
brass over their heads. 

9 They come ! the beautiful ones ! 
the shining angels, in their love and 
light. 

10 Their wings' are only their own 
swift desires ; their crowns the im- 
mortal amaranths, that glitter with 
the dewy spray-drops from the 
river of life ; their harps are but 
their choiring thoughts that breathe 
instinctive melody into every mo- 
tion; and their high mission is to 
cheer and to bless. 

11 Oh! beautiful upon the moun- 
tains are their feet, as they come 
laden with glad tidings. 

12 The mourner, though he sees 
not their transparent glory, hears 
not the mellow music of their love- 
breathing voices, nor even feels the, 
quiet presence hallowing the spot, 
and the tender touch that soothes 
the throbbing head, yet feels that 
the hot tear has been swept away 
— the heart's strained pulses soft- 
ened to a gentler flow — and blessed 
glimpses of a clearer faith come 
stealthily in upon the night of his 
grief. 

13 Look, ye of the earth, look 
to these realms of light and love, 
when care, and pain, and doubt, 
make life a weariness. Oh 1 let 
not dark, deep, and cruel unbelief 
put away so successfully the pro- 
mise of " the fight " which comes 
only to bless. 



362 THE ARABULA. 



CHAPTEE LI. 

LET US RETURN THANKS. 

We thank thee, O Light, for the inspirations a:-:d 
ministrations of thy new gospels. Thou hast com- 
pleted the answer to prayers breathed to thee in 
moments of darkness and doubt. When we were walk- 
ing in the ways of desolation, without thy truth and 
love and wisdom, behold, thy presence was felt and seen 
like the sun shining through and fertilizing the whole 
domain of life. Thy unslumbering care covered us like 
a mantle, and thy pure and powerful presence drove 
pride, and selfishness, and many passions, out of the 
temple of our being. 

We thank thee, O Light, for thy gracious guidance, 
for the comfort of thy rod and staif, for the ten thousand 
tokens of thy love and wisdom. Thou hast blest us, 
for we now know that all the realms of creation are 
covered with the wings of thy righteousness. The past 
was not evil, for thy ways were through it all ; and to 
the hearts of the true, thou didst prove thyself an angel 
from God. In all human life thou hast wrought mira- 
cles. Thou hast turned the water of many a poor life 
into the wine of a life of richest usefulness. Thou hast 
changed the stones of hatred and passion into the life- 
bread of tender affections. Thou hast raised from the 
grave of despair, and given new life and nobler pur- 
poses to, many social sympathies and beautiful ties. 



LET TJS RETURN THANKS. 363 

And the weakness, and dullness, and darkness, and 
wickedness of oar lives thou hast converted into the 
prophets and apostles of the Good, the True, and the 
BeautifuL 

We thank thee, O bright angel of the Mother and 
Father I for carrying us in thine arms even as the sun 
carries the planets in its warm bosom. In thee we find 
rest — glorious, heavenly, divine repose — out of which 
action flows joyfully even as music flows from the 
myriad voices of Mature. We beseech thee for noth- 
ing, for " thou doest all things well." Every moment 
thou art calling minds out of the darkness. In thee 
they find strength, and enlightenment, and sanctifica- 
tion. They love ; and they fear not. They walk ; and 
they do not stumble. They look upon thee ; and their 
doubts flee away. We beseech thee for nothing, because 
thy gracious omniscience eomprehendeth the least as 
well as the greatest ; and thy life is in all and through 
all ; and in thee all u live and move and have their 
being." 

O Father ! O Mother 1 O Light ! Eeeeive from all 
thy children everlasting love — the flower of their eternal 
gratitude to thee. 



364: THE ARABULA. 



CHAPTER III. 

THE FINITE AND INFINITE IN MAN. 

Human nature is organized and perfectly equipt for 
progression throughout the everlasting ages, and can, 
therefore, be neither absolutely happy at any one time 
nor harmoniously revealed by any one person. 

Not only is the individual thus organized for all-sided 
progression through Eternity, but so also is'each parti- 
cular faculty and quality of his being replete with the 
same irresistible tendency to grow and unfold in the 
direction of its endless career. And therefore it hap- 
pens that, whilst one organ, faculty, or attribute of his 
nature is profoundly slumbering, or perchance just 
beginning to dream in a state of semi-unconsciousness 
between sleeping and waking, its fellow-organ, faculty, 
or attribute may at the same moment, be "wide awake" 
not only, but making real and rapid advancement in its 
own legitimate sphere of usefulness, happiness, and 
development. Contradictions and painful paradoxes in 
human character are, to a very considerable extent, 
referable to these phrenological inequalities of individual 
development. 

The high-born proprietor of the temple is at once a 
king of the earth and an angel of heaven ; but, be it 
remembered, both himself and his palace were built by 
feelings and constructive forces which ante-date his 
consciousness of being ; over which feelings and forces, 



THE FINITE AND INFINITE IN MAN. 365 

therefore, he could exercise none of the privileges of 
self-government. And from this fruitful cause — the 
hereditary possessions of individuals — spring the mon- 
strosities as well as the angels of humanity. 

One inherits a noble physical constitution associated 
with an equally noble brain, adapted to the full mani- 
festation of mind ; another inherits a sickly brain and a 
sicklier body, making intellectual nobleness and beauti- 
ful physical development in this life impossible. But, 
owing to the inherent progressiveness of the human 
mental attributes, the constitutionally enfeebled one 
may, in some particular, far surpass the one who was 
more fortunately organized. The nobler-born, by habit- 
ually cultivating his intellect and gratifying his selfish 
instincts, and equally neglecting the fair and beautiful 
growth of the higher powers and affections, may become 
knavish, licentious, ugly, and eventually loathsome. 
"Whilst the unfortunately-born, by contemplation of 
ennobling and spiritualizing themes, united to industry 
of perception in reading and studying facts and philos- 
ophy, may unfold beautifully like a white lily beneath 
the bending willows. Both these suppositions are pos- 
sible, and have been many times realized ; but neither 
parents nor society can safely rely upon foundations so 
sandy and changeful. 

The reliable rule is — that effects and causes invari- 
ably correspond. A brutal brain is the mother and 
cradle of brutal thoughts and brutal practices. A low, 
coarse nervous system is the cause of low, coarse phy- 
sical sensations. A small brain is the hovel instead of 
a palace, in which the eternal king was born ; therefore 
a hovel life, instead of a regal life, will be poured into 



366 THE AKAEULA. 

society. Beautiful sentiments, pulpit ethics, and divine 
commandments exert no influence upon flat heads, small 
craniums, and low physical temperaments. Persons of 
this mold are pre-eminently conscious of bodily wants 
and physical instincts, and are maddened by social 
limits and the police restrictions to their gratification. 

The animal instincts and characteristics of the lower 
world, are visible at the basis of human nature. 
The truly human arrives only when the animal is quiet 
and tame; and the inner angel comes only after the 
instincts and intellect have been resurrected and trans- 
figured on the mount of Arabula. 

And here, upon this glorious eminence, from which 
the world-lifting " Light " T becomes universally mani- 
fest, we discover another cause of contradictions in 
human nature. Let us analyze it, if possible, and util- 
ize the results : 

Human nature, we must affirm, has in its organiza- 
tion two spheres : one physical, the other spiritual. 
There is, consequently, what might be philosophically 
termed a consciousness of the senses, and of the world of 
objectivities outside of the senses ; and, in the interior 
life, a consciousness of God, and of the infinitude of 
eternal spiritualities within the spirit of God. 

The instincts and the intellect belong to the " con- 
sciousness of the senses ;" while, to " the consciousness 
of God w belong the affections and the flower of intui- 
tions, Wisdom. 

The intellect, relying solely upon the instincts and 
the senses, arrives at self-knowledge, and becomes self- 
sufficient and self-righteous, and — atheistical. Self- 
knowledge is possible only with the human intellect. 



THE FINITE AND INFINITE IN MAN. 367 

It becomes conscious that it is conscious, but the per- 
petuity of this consciousness is possible only through 
memory. Any failure in this retentive faculty, any irre- 
parable break in the chain of facts and sensuous experi- 
ences which are the property of intellect, is equal to a 
loss of so much practical mind ; and, to the same 
extent, the individual is incapacitated fo business; 
being consciously shorn of the available power of 
self-knowledge. Man's power over the objective world 
— his skill and achievements in Science, Art, and 
Mechanics — is determined and proportioned by the 
qualities and completeness of his self-knowledge. That is 
to say, he must know that he knows — his intellect must 
commune with itself, in memory — otherwise he is no 
more than an animal, knowing merely and simply, 
without the proud knowledge that he has productive 
knowledge. Memory makes progression in knowledge 
possible ; not merely the memory of a fact or an event, 
but the memory of the thinking, and of the conclusions 
awakened by the fact or event ; thus fortifying the 
mind with the important consciousness that it is con- 
scious of itself, and therefore potent. 

But inasmuch as memory is the only recorder of the 
facts and events accumulated by means of the senses, 
it is not certain that the intellect of the individual will 
continue to grow through life, as does the forest tree ; 
but rather, that, after the sixty-fifth year, the mind will 
begin to retire insensibly from the senses, and to realize 
more distinctly than ever before the consciousness of 
God, and, possibly, obtain glimpses of the future. 

This superior consciousness is what metaphysicians 
call "religion." It takes hold of principles, and in prin- 



368 THE ARABULA. 

ciples alone can the mind achieve absolute growth and 
development; because a principle contains within 
itself all the facts and events which are allied to it 
in the nature of things. Thus, by becoming conscious 
of a principle, the essences of all that has been, is, 
or may be possible to the operation of that principle, 
come within the grasp and consciousness of the spirit. 
The only cement of facts, is Principle. To know by 
memory the facts, as well as to be interiorly conscious 
of the principle, is to possess at once both knowledge 
and wisdom. 

Man never realizes God until he becomes conscious 
of Principles. Justice, Love, Beauty, Truth, Power, 
have no existence in the intellect, except as one's eyes 
may look at bright objects " through a glass darkly ;" 
but to the higher spiritual consciousness these Prin- 
ciples are visible, and they are worshiped by this 
consciousness as the attributes of God. Truth is heard 
within, like the whisperings of the shell of the Arabian 
maid in Ghebir — 

" Apply its polished lips to your attentive ear, 
And it remembers its august abodes, 
And murmurs as the ocean murmured there !" 

St. Augustine said : " God is nearer, more closely 
related to us, and therefore more easily known by us, 
than sensible, corporeal things." That is, in other 
language, man's consciousness of principles is his con- 
sciousness of perfection and infinity ! And it thence 
follows that an intelligence without a consciousness of 
these principles, is without God in the world — is 
atheistic, selfish, mechanical, and harassed by the 



THE FINITE AND INFINITE IN MAN. 369 

limitations of sense, of power, and of gratification — 
and that such a person is a dangerous force in the 
family, in society, or in the government. But a 
veritable angel presence is that person whose interior 
nature is conscious that it is conscious of Principles. 
One who feels the warmth of love not only, but who 
also feels the beauty and eternity of love, is in the self- 
consciousness of God. Or, shall it be said that thus, 
and thus only, or upon this principle, God is revealed 
to human nature ? 

This, finally, is the essence of all life's experience ; 
man's power to have a spiritual consciousness of eternal 
Principles. This consciousness is a revelation to man 
of man not only, but also of God to man, with super- 
added glimmerings of all the infinite progressions and 
inexhaustible possibilities which are in God. 

But the age-after-age conflict between the two 
spheres in human nature — the finite on the side of the 
body, and of the infinite on the side of the spirit — will 
account for all the selfishness, brutality, crime, and 
atheism on the one hand, and for all the religions, 
vagaries, superstition, supernaturalism, and theism on 
the other. 

But over all and through all is the spirit of omnipo- 
tent Truth, and Arabula still sings through angel-lips, 
" Behold, I bring you glad tidings of great joy, which 
shall be unto all people /" 
16* 



370 THE ARABTJLA. 



CHAPTER LIII. 

A DISTINCTION WITHOUT ANTAGONISM. 

Arabula's light, shining through the temple of 
reason, makes plain and straight the path of recon- 
ciliation between man's finite and infinite spheres, i. e. y 
between his instinctively selfish and his intuitively 
impersonal nature. 

The distinction between the intellect or understand- 
ing, and the pure reasoning or intuitive wisdom powers, 
is not teaching that man's nature is organizationally a 
magazine of incompatibilities. Seen truly, this distinc- 
tion, while it is a perfect explanation of the inconsisten- 
cies in the manifestations of human nature, is not only 
necessary to a correct analysis of man's mentality, but 
reveals, at the same time, the profoundly wise duality 
of his inmost spirit, which is constructed for an immor- 
tal career in progression. 

By intellect, which is selfish and cold, you obtain 
knowledge of outside existences and things ; and by it, 
also, you arrive at a state of self-consciousness distinct 
and apart from other existences and things. And this 
self-consciousness is grounded, externally, in experience 
through the senses; and, internally, it is powerfully 
intrenched in the primal fundamental instincts. Sel- 
fishness, therefore, is at the very basis of human life — 
indeed, selfishness is the foundation of individual and 
social existence — and, in order to restrain and redeem 



A DISTINCTION WITHOUT ANTAGONISM:. 371 

this basic principle, men found codes of Morals, and 
establish systems of Religion and Tirtue, and enforce 
obedience by legislative and military power, and by 
preaching the terrors of a wrathful God. 

Wisdom, which is pure intuitive reason, on the other 
hand, which is the immortal superstructure reared upon 
this selfish foundation, is the self-consciousness of God 
in the spirit. In other words, the sensibilities and sen- 
timents, and aspirations and apprehensions of the 
superior powers of mind are the voices of Arabula — of 
God m, not outside of, the spirit. The highest feeling 
of Wisdom is a revelation of God ; more or less, all 
have this a feeling," crude and vague though it is, and 
each acknowledges it and each worships it ; wisely or 
otherwisely, according to the growth and education, or 
the non-growth and ignorance of the individual or 
people. 

The innate feeling of immortality, the innate feeling 
of boundless ideas, the innate feeling of unchangeable 
principles, the innate feeling of love toward superior 
angelic existences, the innate feeling in every human 
heart, that it is worthy of a better life than that of 
devotion to animal instinct and selfishness — is the voice 
of Wisdom. " I am" is the language of Wisdom ; but 
the motto of intellect is, " I think P !No man is sure 
that he is not a brute, and no man is sure that he will 
not die and cease utterly like a brute, until he has 
arisen to the highest self-consciousness, which is the 
unutterably happy and peaceful feeling of perfect one- 
ness, and essential identification with the spirit of God. 
His spirit then can sing, " I know that my redeemer 
liveth !" For then he hath knowledge that his 



372 THE AKABULA. 

" redeemer " is inseparable from his constitution, and 
will go with him wherever he goes ; will judge his acts, 
condemn his vices, approve his virtues, punish his 
selfish crimes, pardon his hereditary temptations, burn 
him in hades, bless him in paradise ; and thus, over and 
over, and from eternity to eternity, perpetually loving, 
unchangeably just, omniscient in goodness, progressive 
in power — " his God," pure Spirit, and " his Saviour," 
pure Truth, the same yesterday, to-day, and forever ! 

Intellect is the temporary rudimental antagonist of 
Wisdom. But the highest is supreme sovereign, and in 
the end brings all opposition in humiliation to its feet. 
Knowledge, which is the name men give to the 
acquirements of intellect, is not an eternal property- 
holder. It is made up of the memory of things and 
experiences outside of the individual — very useful and 
convenient in passing — whilst Wisdom can truthfully 
quote the adopted maxim, " omnia mea mecum porta " 
— or, " all that is mine I carry with me." 

The teachings of tfc Wisdom are the teachings of 
God ; and the practice of Wisdom's ways (laws) is 
obedience to God's commandments. There is no other 
Religion possible ; for this is the consciousness of man's 
highest attributes attaining to self-consciousness — the 
intelligence of the redeemed intellect ; the living wit- 
ness in the temple ; the voices of the uplifting affec- 
tions ; the philosophical declarations of the intuitions ; 
the light of Arabula in the universe of life ; the actual 
presence of the attributes of the infinite God in the 
spirit of man ! 



THE USES OF SELFISHNESS. 



CHAPTEE LIT. 

THE USES OF SELFISHNESS. 

Under the beautiful guidance and truth-revealing 
illuminations of Arabula, we have thus far traveled 
directly toward a knowledge of the true uses of the 
great first principle of all life, the chief attribute 
whereof is Selfishness. 

This inherent, ever-active instinct is the Mephisto- 
philes that overshadows the glory of human nature. In 
plants and in animals the existence and exercise of 
selfishness seem wise and legitimate ; and in man not 
less so, were it not for the fact that he is endowed with 
a superior consciousness. It is this exalted super-physi- 
cal, anti-selfish, angelic sensibility, which so vividly sep- 
arates and distinguishes man from the lower kingdoms 
of life and organization. At base man is animal — gov- 
erned by the simple instincts of self- feeding, self-pleasure, 
self-preservation, and the prolongation of his own life, 
cost what it may to the life and selfishness of others. 

But all this brute-selfishness, remember, is an indis- 
pensable ingredient of life at the very basis of human 
existence. Selfishness is the essential element of growth 
in the roots of life's tree. Yines, shrubs, vegetables, 
flowers, trees, animals, were otherwise impossible. 
Deprived of selfishness, withoutthe instinctive passion 
for seeking pleasure, they could not exist. They would 
not eat when hungry, nor drink when thirsty, nor sleep 



874 THE ARABULA. 

when tired of toil, nor would they mate and multiply 
each after its kind, because there could be in their con- 
stitutions no motive, no impulse, no prime necessity for 
exertion, no cause for organic existence and develop- 
ment. When you can build a house without a founda- 
tion, grow an oak without roots, sow and reap a luxu- 
riant harvest without soil, raise men and women with- 
out first having baby-boys and baby-girls, then, but not 
before, can you have a world without centripetal forces, 
a circumference without a center, animals without self- 
preserving and self-gr.atifying instincts, and a human 
family without units, without individuals, without senses, 
without intelligence, and without selfishness. 

But it has been seen, in the light of the indwelling 
witness, that man, unlike the animal, has the feeling of 
an infinite life in his superior consciousness. He can, 
through this spiritual sensibility, put himself in the 
place of another, or he can think of himself as though 
he was outside of himself and another individual, and 
thus he can identify and blend his real existence with 
the existence of the whole. In this realm of higher 
consciousness man becomes, both in qualities and quan- 
tities, in property as in amount, a higher and superior 
order of being. Here is revealed the impersonal ideas, 
or those truths which have universal application. Here, 
and only here, he sees the divine Principles — Love, 
Justice, Truth, Beauty, Power, Perfection, Eternity, 
Infinity. If these attributes were not in the essences 
of man's higher endowments — or, stronger, if these 
principles were not as essentially in man as they are 
essentially without him, in the infinite heart of Mother- 
Nature and in the sensorium of Father- God — he could 



THE USES OF SELFISHNESS. 375 

not, by any possibility, either feel their presence or intel- 
lectually perceive their application. In persons of low 
development — who are yet on the plane of pure, sim- 
ple, brutal, instinctive selfish life — these Ideas, these 
Truths, these Principles, this feeling of God, this yearn- 
ing for Immortality, are unknown. Whilst in minds of 
the higher development, whose selfishness and intelli- 
gence are resurrected and consecrated to higher uses, 
these Ideas, Truths, Principles, Feelings, Yearnings, are 
as familiar as flowers in the gardens or stars in the fir- 
mament. 

" Self-love but serves the virtuous mind to wake," 
As the small pebble stirs the peaceful lake. 1 ' 

Man's selfish instincts demonstrate his origin. They 
lie at the foundation of his indestructible superstruc- 
ture, and contain a vast repository of trustworthy bio- 
graphical sketches, showing that, in the departments of 
physiology and life, the human family " was born of 
poor, but respectable parents "— surnamed, in the re- 
cords of the oldest and only true Bible, " Minerals," 
" Vegetables," " Animals," and their " Elements." 

On the other hand, man's unselfish, fraternal, mag- 
nanimous, infinity- feeling principles of mind,- demon- 
strate his Destiny. They prove that the human family 
is, in the departments of intention and spirit, organized 
for progression without end, and for promotion in all 
that is God-like, celestial, and absolutely perfect. 



376 THE AKABULA. 



CHAPTER LY. 

PATENT MEDICINES FOE SINS. 

Men of higher moral developments, but who are not 
yet sufficiently balanced in mentality to be wise and 
large in their views and conduct, originate and elabo- 
rate various remedies for the cure of selfishness, sins, 
crimes, and wretchedness. But for one " prevention " 
system, there are one hundred plans of " cure," five 
hundred schemes of " palliation," a thousand machines 
for " restraint " through fear, and a million-horse-power 
mill of brimstone " punishment" and eternal misery. 

Man's superior consciousness, which enables him to 
project himself into an objective and abstract existence, 
is the father of anthropomorphism. And this anti- 
progressive conception of God is the father of many 
arbitrary schemes of rewards and punishments. It 
proceeds on the principle that man's will is free to act, 
and that it does act, at variance with the decrees of the 
anthropomorphic God. Reason, affections, the power 
of willing, the freedom of action, they assert, are pow- 
ers given to man, whereby he may elect to live and die 
in the Lord, or to live and die in the devil. 

But are not these moralists, religionists, and meta- 
physicians blind to the fact that will is but the effect 
and the servant of feeling ? The will of a tiger reflects 
the feelings of a tiger. Motives in man vary with his 
moods ; and these, for the most part, are determined by 



PATENT MEDICIXE3 TOE BINS. 377 

circumstances without or by conditions within. The 
anthropomorphic God, however, is unable to take 
knowledge of constitutional differences, and will not 
look at palliating considerations in man's surroundings. 
At this point the doctors prescribe ; and the first patent 
medicine recommended is u Faith." 

Faith, by some moralists and metaphysicians, is sup- 
posed to be an act of will ; on the same principle that 
the mind, by the projection of its higher self-conscious- 
ness, can construct a personal God. But do you not 
perceive that the feeling of faith is the effect of an 
antecedent feeling ? If the object of your faith is out- 
side of your private, selfish, lower consciousness, it must 
be, at the same time, within the realm of your unselfish, 
public, and spiritual consciousness; because it is im- 
possible that you should have feelings without causes, 
or faith in an object which is totally foreign to the in- 
herent sympathies and aspirations of your spirit. The 
moment you attempt to believe any thing, or to repose 
faith in an object, which contradicts nature within you 
or nature without you, that moment you depart from 
the righteous ways of truth, and become an unreasoning, 
dogmatic supernaturalist, perhaps a religious fanatic, 
and certainly a hypocrite. 

Faith, in order to act as a curative medicine for the 
sins of selfishness, "must be well shaken before taken." 
Believe in the impossible, and behold! your life does 
not improve. And why not ? Because you do not feed 
the roots of your mind with truth. The morality that 
rests upon faith in the righteousness of a foreign object, 
which is not part of the unchangeable laws of your own 
superior nature, is immoral; because its first acts are 



378 ^HE AKABULA. 

treachery and surrender, and because its second acts, 
worse than the first, are inhumanity and tyranny. 

The impossibility of separating man's faith from the 
causes of feeling, which causes ante-date or predominate 
the power of willing, renders all faith in a supernatural 
religion absurd. The theology of the Roman Catholic 
Church is founded upon anthropomorphism, and the 
religion of the various Protestant churches is founded 
upon a supernatural Christ-ism ; but the world's history, 
to say nothing of its present condition, proves that the 
patent medicines, manufactured and faithfully admin- 
istered by these soul-physicians, do not cure mankind 
of selfishness and its resultant evils. The Catholic ideal 
is to become "God-like;" the Protestant ideal, to be- 
come " Christ-like ;" and the two establishments, and 
the lives and conduct of the peoples who support them, 
show the error, yea, the i?nmorality, of their ideals and 
plans. 

And why immoral ? Because these religious systems 
start with the theory that man's nature is radically 
wrong, needing reconstructing, and must be practically 
blotted out before he can be "saved" and the world 
" redeemed." 

In the blessed and sacred light of Arabula, on the 
other hand, we read that the true ideal for man is not , 
to attempt to be like God nor yet like Christ, but to be 
healthfully and harmonially A MAN ! God cannot 
be manifested in the flesh upon any other principle. 
The glorious majesty of Divine Wisdom becomes visible 
in the harmonial glory of a tvhole human being. Such 
holiness (wholeness) is supremely beautiful. And this 
is your Ideal — that is, if you are rational and truthful 



PATENT MEDICINES FOR SINS. 379 

and natural ; but if you profess " faith " in an object 
irrational and beyond the possibilities of human nature, 
and rely upon such u faith to make you whole," then 
prepare your heart for disappointment and despair. 
You are guilty of treachery to the light and love and 
laws of your higher consciousness ; guilty of surrender- 
ing the holiesf parts of your spirit to the devouring 
beasts of superstition ; guilty of inhumanity, in joining 
a party that blasphemes and disgraces and perverts 
human nature ; guilty of tyranny, by aiding the theo- 
logical foes of mankind in their efforts to force the 
millions out of Nature's ways, which are the pleasant 
paths of God. 

The reconstruction of human nature is an idle dream. 
The plan is perfect, and the pattern is before all men, 
in the superior consciousness with which all are more or 
less sensible ; and to attempt a different plan and pattern 
is to offend the divine order, the punishment for which 
is sure mortification and ultimate despair. To the re- 
ligionist it is a final atheism and hopelessness with re- 
gard to mankind ; to the sensualist, it is an insupport- 
able weariness and the cause of suicide. 

Let all who seek to reorganize Society take warning ; 
let all Communists, who would build a social state 
without meum et tuum, beware ; let those who work to 
harmonize Labor and Capital take heed ; for the Om- 
niscient goodness hath ordained that man's primal 
principle of Selfishness shall have and shall enjoy its 
legitimate rights as much, and as surely, as any other 
principle in his constitution. Any social system, any 
political party, any religious plan, not in harmony 
with man's whole nature, will meet with obstacles, fail- 



380 THE ARABULA. 

ures, disappointments, and final overthrow. One part 
of man's nature cannot be sent to war with another 
part. The whole must be duly and reverently recog- 
nized. Selfishness, the centripetal force, and philan- 
thropy, the centrifugal tendency, must be fully pro- 
vided for in your new social system. Call thou not 
unclean, untamable, or wicked, any thing which the 
Lord God hath made. 



APPLICATION OF PRINCIPLES TO LIFE. 381 



CHAPTER LVL 

APPLICATION OF PRINCIPLES TO LIFE. 

Those who have read of the " Battle between the 
Spirit and its Circumstances'** will remember that the 
spirit of man is situated in the midst of many concen- 
tric circles of fashioning influences — of primitive, con- 
structive, impelling, shaping, misshaping, educating, mis- 
educating " circumstances ;" that man is the " center- 
stance " stationed at the pivotal center of the several con- 
centric circles ; that his outermost circle is the external 
coating of the earth with its invisible atmosphere ; next, 
the heat of the sun, and its light, and all the rays that 
come from the star sources, enter into the most external 
primitive sphere of man — using the word "man" in the 
general, comprehensive sense ; the next circle of circum- 
stances is social, or societary, the result of combinations 
of persons and of institutions, customs, and laws which 
come out of such combinations, touching all parts of the 
human, nervous system, whereby mankind are shaped 
or misshaped, are made or unmade, are driven forward 
in a straight track to success or are switched off into 
defeat, and sent back to the target-stations of society ; 
the third circle of circumstances may be termed the 
phrenological — showing that the brain organs which a 

* See the discourse referred to in a volume by the author entitled 
" Morning Lectures," 



382 THE ARABULA. 

man inherits are not himself, or, rather, his spirit is not 
to be forever identified with his case of brain-tools and 
instruments, although, for the present life, they compose 
the positive circle of circumstances which the internal 
spirit and character are obliged to recognize, employ, 
and contend with, in their progress from birth on- 
ward and heavenward ; but the most primitive circle 
of circumstances is the physiological — the first direct 
influence proceeding from what men have inherited — 
the primal fortune or misfortune of the pre-natal life, 
bringing to each both the form and the functions of his 
body, including the combination of temperaments, fixing 
for a lifetime the relation of the internal organs to each 
other, and measurably determining whether they per- 
form their functions vigorously or indifferently, perfectly 
or slovenly, whether they be fast or slow, whether 
healthy or freighted with the seeds of disease and 
misery. Thus all involuntarily enter into the first 
circle of circumstances — into the physiological organs and 
conditions — with which the babe is obliged to contend on 
its way up the road toward manhood and the future. 
The babe desires to eat and drink, to be nursed and 
caressed, to be fed, to be let alone, and to sleep ; and 
thus all its plays, attractions, inclinations, and dispo- 
sitions, spring primarily out of that circle of circum- 
stances which is called " physiological." 

The inmost point of consciousness, remember — at the 
very center of the individual life — is the man. This 
pivotal consciousness of the internal and eternal indi- 
viduality, is what we call " spirit," which is the highest 
of man, and is, consequently, the very last to be heard 
from. There are multitudes of persons, "in all communi- 



APPLICATION OF PRINCIPLES TO LIFE. 383 

ties, who seem not yet to have heard from the highest 
God-consciousness with which each is everlastingly 
endowed. 

Therefore a distinction should be made between 
" force " of the vitality and the " power" of the inmost 
essence or spirit. Force comes out from motion, life, 
sensation, and from so much of the intelligence as natu- 
rally blossoms out of these primal principles which live 
in man in common with the animal world. Yital or 
primal human " force " suffers reaction commensurate 
with the energies of its puttings forth ; action and 
reaction among man's vital or primal " forces " are 
nearly equal ; and a human mind, to conquer its many 
and various circumstances, must rise superior to force 
and become " a power," which is the first manifestation 
of the inmost spirit. Power is silent. It rises superior 
to force, which always goes to battle, being the source 
of discord, of anger, of war, and of every passion that 
afflicts, distorts, and mars the human race. 

Advancing, rising up from within, power comes forth 
and takes the ascendant, and the individual is lifted out 
of the discords of its circumstances into a regal stratum 
of spirit consciousness — imparting to the mind a magic 
power to let war and strife, whether of the body or in 
society, whether in the nation or in the kitchen, pass 
by and not disturb the profound depths of that inner 
life which touches infinity on every side. 

Such minds, as I have illustrated throughout this 
volume, have what may be truly called a deep " religious 
experience." It comes from the presence, and low sweet 
voice, of Arabula. It is within every one's reach. Only 
learn the origin, nature, and number of the circum- 



384: THE ARABULA. 

stances which environ you, and the side-influences which 
you are called upon to overcome arid vanquish, not by 
violently cutting them asunder — not wildly and madly, 
as an infuriated animal butts its head against an 
enemy that is blocking its way — but by spreading " the 
wings of your spirit," and soaring in hope, in thought, 
in aspiration, and in power, above the frictions, and 
tumults, and contentions which environ you, many of 
which you may have inherited from father and mother, 
and their progenitors. 

In this way a man becomes "reformed" from the 
center to the outmost circle of his circumstances. It is 
the newest new birth, and the shortest road to the 
kingdom of heaven. All this beautiful reformation and 
regeneration is possible long " before you die," It is 
not necessary to wade through any ministerial " quack- 
eries " to attain to oneness with Mature and God. 
The pure, the beautiful, the powerful principle of 
inmost life, is illimitable. When the spirit's power 
rises up from its inmost — when it expands above force 
and war, both private and public — it sees itself to be 
" a conqueror " in the midst of its material surround- 
ings. This is that high power which the martyr feels, 
lifting his soul into unison with God and angels, when his 
body is environed with the consuming names. This is 
the power which, for a moment, the poet feels when 
lifted by his highest afflatus. And so Byron said — 

"I live not in myself, but I become 
Portion of that around me ; and to me 
High mountains are a feeling." 

A high utterance of the identity of the inner life with 
the sublimest endowments — an exalted moment, when 



APPLICATION OF PRINCIPLES TO LIFE. 385 

the " power" of the heart was felt to be one with the 
silent and grandest manifestations of God and Nature 
in the physical globe. 

Cannot you arrive at this condition ? Suppose yon 
adopt the principle of Liberty. Can yon not contem- 
plate Liberty as a "great mountain V Can it not 
become to you " a feeling V 9 If so, then, you love it. 
If you love it, it becomes sacred; and whatever is 
sacred to you, you are consecrated to with all your soul 
and spirit. "When you are truly consecrated to a prin- 
ciple, the kingdom of heaven is very near to you, and 
you are very near to that, and it is no longer necessary 
that you should hire ministers to steer you along the 
road to a salvation from the consequences of sin. In- 
dependent of pulpit quackeries, you are put into sym- 
pathy with the Divine Spirit, which is the never-failing 
fountain of all eternal Principles. And when the mind 
rises up into sympathy with even one of the eternal 
Principles which dwell in the living central heart of the 
universe, its spirit-pulses quickly harmonize with the 
inmost beat of the Infinite ; and such a mind is respon- 
sive day and night — faithful, loyal, always saved, always 
silent, ever hopeful, never despairing. Emerson said : — 

" Devils despair ; Gods forever hope." 

Individuals in all times and countries have these 
exalted spiritual experiences — these fine thoughts and 
heavenly emotions — these sublime, ennobling, immortal 
aspirations. I take it for granted that many of my 
readers have identified themselves with something which 
is not theological, not creedal, nor educational — some- 
thing deeper, diviner, sublimer than all — which was 
17 



386 THE AEABTJLA. 

the first " revelation " to intuition and reason that all 
are " immortal beings." 

Kind reader, do not you cling to a Principle that 
surges out into the sublime realities of infinitude ? If 
you would draw your inspiration from the ocean of in- 
finitude, you must first be "loyal" to at least one of its 
many central principles. Use, Justice, Power, Beauty, 
Love, Truth, Fraternity, Wisdom, Liberty : take one of 
these. Take truth, take kindness, take love, take 
charity, take justice, take some plain patriotic senti- 
ment. Be faithful to some Principle in which you have 
faith. Become perfect in that one, although you be 
defective in all other principles; for so long as you are 
truly loyal to one of them, so long and to the same extent 
will you receive testimony that you are deathless at the 
center of consciousness. The power of the spirit is 
something different from the " force of the will." The 
vitalic force of will is self-exhaustive. " It uses itself 
up." The person who does every thing by force will 
look in the face like a beast when maddened. The 
stubborn-headed, willful character, when angry, bellows 
like a bull ; he roars like a lion — that is, when the will 
borrows all its available force from the animal elements 
which the soul (the intermediate sphere) has inherited 
from the lower kingdoms of earth. Each one, therefore, 
should become, so to speak, a spiritual Yan Amburgh. 
Men should go into their organic cages, and, with spirit 
power, say to the different animal, turbulent forces, 
" Down !" Spirit within is a Daniel, amid lions that 
dared not array their forces and appetites against him. 
" Get thee behind me, Satan," is the command of Spirit. 



APPLICATION OF PKINCIPLES TO LIFE. 387 

It is a voice from the seat of " power " amid the passions 
and appetites of selfishness. 

Now apply all these examples and reasonings to the 
human will, which we may call the mind's vital force. 
What do you suppose is the limit of "Will ? It would 
be difficult, I think, to place any boundary to the ulti- 
mate sphere of its action. Force, from the soul, is 
limited. It commits suicide frequently. At the very 
climax of outward success, " men of force" drop down 
into every kind of bankruptcy ; they tumble headlong 
from the pinnacle where it would seem they were to be 
victorious. But the Spirit's power never loses, never 
faints ; it always gains, for it is a part of omnipotence. 
"Verily, man's spirit has revealed proofs that Will has 
an attribute of "power" which enables its possessor 
after death to rise up bodily, and thus to come into 
sympathy with great magnetic rivers which flow through 
space from the Golden Belt to the Earth, to Mars, 
to Jupiter, to Saturn, and to the clusters of smaller 
planets between all these and the sun, including Venus 
and Mercury, and thus, also, to correspondingly in- 
habited planets (to other and more distant earths) re- 
volving around other and more immense suns, belonging 
to that great assemblage of constellations which consti- 
tute the Milky Way.* 

But there is a far more practical view of our prin- 
ciples of spiritual power and progression. Arabula 
carries the torch of celestial sunshine into the labyrinths 
of intellectual darkness, into the obscurest fields of 
materialistic science, and shows " loyal natures " how to 

* For explanation, see the author's work, entitled, "A Stellar Key to the 
Summer Land." 



388 THE AEABULA. 

master and mold matter, and how to augment the 
material prosperities of the day and hour. In these 
fields we meet Liebig, Dove, Oerstedt, Ehrenberg, Tyn- 
dal, Yournans, Ashburner, and many others equally 
eminent — all profound and enthusiastic believers in 
scientific and philosophical knowledge, as the great 
stepping-stone to a world's advancement. They exalt 
scientific above all scholastic education ; they think in- 
finitely more of chemical than of classical knowledge. 
The learned humanists, among whom stand conspicuous 
Ulrich von Hutten, Reuchlin, Erasmus, &c, by en- 
lightening the darkness of ignorance and the fanatical 
prejudices of their time, prepared Germany for the 
Reformation. " But," says an observing writer, " our 
time and country are different. Our material and in- 
dustrious progress has no parallel. The means of their 
development accord with the genius of our people. 
The practical nature, habits, and modes of thought, 
peculiar to the American people, are not destined to 
govern the world by the revolutionary influence of pro- 
found philosophical speculations, or by the overwhelm- 
ing power of a martial despotism. We are people of 
figures and facts. Our relative geographical situation, 
natural resources, climate, in short, the working up of 
our material wealth is to be the source of our national 
greatness. The most feasible mode of accomplishing 
the object referred to is by the intellectual emancipa- 
tion of the people by a mental culture adapted to their 
natural proclivities and their true 'manifest destiny.' 

"Providence does not always lead mankind with easy 
steps. Sometimes the spirit of the time moves so 
rapidly and vehemently that the globe seems to tremble 



APPLICATION OF PRINCIPLES TO LIFE. 389 

from pole to pole. Within the space of a single gene- 
ration we witness the appearance of more discoveries 
and inventions than we are able to enumerate. We 
live in an epoch infinitely more prolific in useful inven- 
tions than that in which Guttenberg came to enlighten 
the world. The most ingenious machines, admirable 
for their power, velocity, and delicacy, produce effects 
so wonderful as to make men despair; the power of 
steam is applied, by an infinite variety of mechanical 
contrivances, to annihilate distance and time, and ren- 
der the impossible among the easiest of things feasible ; 
mountains, riverfe, gulfs are traversed with the speed of 
the hurricane. By the mysterious agency of electricity 
thought is flashed from continent to continent, ere we 
can say ' it lightens ;' the quiet ray of the sun becomes 
our most expert and accurate painter. All things not 
absurd become possible. These manifestations of the 
human mini may triumph side by side with the most 
wonderful works of time. Institutions designed to 
operate in such a sphere, to open wide the avenues of 
wealth, power, and intellectual omnipotence over the 
material elements of nature, are mostly of the profound- 
est considerations and the noblest efforts of the world's 
benefactors." 

But from this it should not be inferred that material 
knowledge and selfish progression are totally antagonistic 
to the development of an interior life in the individual. 
The truth is, it is impossible for the whole to advance 
materially without promoting and enriching, indirectly, 
all the dependent parts ; even as true intellectual culture 
leads, sooner or later, to more interior and spiritual 
growth of character. 



390 



THE ARABULA.. 



CHAPTEK LYII. 



FINAL VIEWS OF PRINCIPLES. 



Man, viewed in the light of Arabula, is the repository 
of the germs of all divine principles. Every property 
of matter, in the outlying universe, finds its respondent 
and counterpart in man. That which in matter is 
chemical affinity and attraction, in the human spirit is 
love and sympathy. The correspondence is perfect. 
The world of mind is clothed and harmoniously dressed 
with a world of matter. Man's spirit is composed of 
all principles which, in their totality and infinite organ- 
ization, is called God. This identity, of the essentials 
of man's inmost with the principles of the infinite spirit, 
is the basis of his immortality, and the cause of his 
tendency for endless progression. 

The footprints of Arabula are visible on all " the 
sands of Time." 

The Greeks believed in the existence of a Dseman (a 
guardian intelligence) in the heavens, which could speak 
to the "Reason" in men. This is the "Logos" of 
which something is divulged in the beginning of John's 
Gospel. He affirms that this Dseman was the " Logos " 
which was God ; in other words, the Reason of the 
Universe and the Supreme Intelligence of the Universe, 
are one and the same. The life of the Spiritual Uni- 
verse — the " Logos," or God — became " Light " in the 
spirits of men. 



FINAL VIEWS OF PEIXCEPLES. 391 

Thus the essences of infinite life flowed into finite 
consciousness in the human organism, and thereby 
became " the true Light, which lighteth every man that 
cometh into the world." Did Plutarch learn this doc- 
trine from the Christians ? Did Marcus Aurelius first 
read this idea in John's spiritualistic gospel ? Nay ; 
from Intuition and Eeason, and not from written authori- 
ties, did the Grecian Spiritualists learn of the imper- 
sonal " Logos" resident in the life of every man. John, 
in his beautifully pure gospel, admitted the harmonial 
view of man, as did Jesus and Plato and Socrates, 
teaching that the " Logos " — i. e., the essentials of the 
life of the Universe, God — " was made flesh," or was 
clothed in material organs and -forms, " and dwelt " in 
the visible realm, " full of grace and truth." 

But neither Plato nor John were fully up to the 
view presented from the stand-point of Arabula. 

Plato, while teaching that the human soul is an 
emanation from the infinite Divinity, and thus admit- 
ting the essential affinity between man and God ; yet, 
in his logical reasoning, he was compelled to run the 
individual through various transmigrational ordeals, 
and finally, when perfectly pure, to annihilate him by a 
process of absorption. John, on the other hand, taught 
the immortality of every man, but introduced a sectarian 
mystery, contrary to the fixed principles of Nature, by 
teaching the dogma that the " Logos " was manifested 
in one individual. Nature brings to " light," by per- 
petually recurring manifestations and examples, the 
fact that the Divine life is incarnated — is made " flesh " 
and human — every time a child is born ! The harmonial 
view of this subject is anti-Platonic in that it makes the 



392 THE AEABTJLA. 

individual immortal, and is anti-John in that it demon- 
strates the universality of the " incarnation." 

Associated with this doctrine of incarnation, as a 
kind of correlate, is the doctrine of salvation. That 
something in the human universe is " vitally ont of 
order," is the conviction of both heathen and Chris- 
tians; and the question arises on all sides, "What is 
it?" and "How is it to be remedied?" 

The greatest pre-Christian philosophers substantially 
said : " We must strive to bring the God that is 
within us into harmony with the God that is within 
the Universe." This was their effort. The God within 
was believed to be estranged from the God without ; 
and the conflict between mankind and the Divinity 
(they said) would continue till the God without is found 
and inseparably allied to the God within. The Chris- 
tians, on the other hand, said in substance : " The God 
of the Universe is the same as the God in you, but He 
is striving to bring you into harmony with himself." The 
heathen, therefore, strive as strangers to find God, and 
thus attain "Heavenly rest;" the Christians behold 
God striving to attract man unto himself, to crown him 
with " eternal life and peace." 

There is a vast gulf between these teachings and the 
harmonial view of progressive principles, which is — 

Finite man, in the properties and possessions of his 
spirit, is a miniature of the Infinite. Growth, endless 
improvement, progress in all directions, throughout 
everlasting ages, is the central law of his being. Let us 
reaffirm that the attributes of the human spirit are the 
repository of the seed-grain of an eternal development. 
He stands at the center of an infinite radius. He is 



FINAL VIEWS OF PEINCIPLES. 393 

made and endowed by Father (God), and by Mother 
(Nature), with immortal powers of individual growth. 
He is constructed on the infinite plan — "in its image 
and likeness" — not in form, but in the essentials of his 
being. The law of progression regards and endows all 
men equally and impartially. There is perfect harmony 
between endowments and responsibilities. Obligations 
are commensurate with powers possessed. All men are 
born alike, not equal. All men are equally dependent 
and independent ; but no two individuals are on the 
same plane of growth, having exactly similar wants and 
needs at the same time ; all go to the Fountain to be 
filled and inspired, but each with his own measure 
which holds more, or less, or different, than that of 
every other at the inexhaustible source. 

In man's physical structure are found all the primates 
of the globe, or, rather, all the proximates of metallic 
and non-metallic substances; in man they come forth 
as the ultimate particles and refined principles of mat- 
ter. It cannot be true that all minerals are poisonous, 
because all minerals are found, in their ultimate (finest) 
state, in the fluids and solids of the human composition. 
Oxygen is everywhere present in man's body ; so is 
phosphorus in his bones, blood, and brain ; hydrogen 
is in all the fluids, and some of the solids ; carbon is in 
all the secretions and excretions ; iron is an essential of 
the blood ; soda is in his muscles ; silex is found in the 
hair and nails ; magnesia exists in blood and brain ; 
lime is abundant in the bones ; albumen and fibrin ; 
and sulphur, and the several associate metals ; also the 
acids and alkalies — acetic, uric, oxalic, benzoic, potas- 
sium, &c, demonstrating, as perfectly as science tran 
17* 



394 THE ARABTTLA. 

establish any discovery or proposition, that man's body 
is the ultimate of all mineral, vegetable, and animal 
properties and organizations of the globe. 

Man, therefore, is the final, because he is the highest 
physical organism possible. The same rule applies to 
his mental structure and inmost possessions. We find 
him the final finite embodiment of the infinite Love 
and "Wisdom. He is a child in this world. Wars, 
cruelties, evils, injustices, sins, diseases, miseries — these 
are the effects of undevelopment. His salvation from 
hell-punishment is progression, growth, unfoldment. 
His growth is both automatic (unconscious), and con-" 
scious (or volitional) ; and thus each man is inevitably 
and forever a party to that which may enter into his 
experience, either good or evil. Man is a type of the 
infinite Universe. Bailey, the author of Festus, saw 
the initials of this correspondence when he wrote — 

" Earth is the symbol of humanity, 
Water the spirit, stars the truths of heaven ; 
All animals are living hieroglyphs : 
The dashing dog, the stealthy-stepping cat, 
Hawk, bull — all that exists — mean something more 
To the true eye than their shapes show." 

Man's spirit destitute of the essential principles of 
Justice, Truth, Science, Philosophy, Love, Wisdom ? 
Impossible ! If mankind were " strangers " to these 
center-most principles, man could not acquire any per- 
manent knowledge concerning them. Once more I t 
affirm that every man's intuitions are filled with the 
seed-grain of all principles. Agriculturists never 
attempt to raise harvests on soils destitute of the essen- 
tial properties of which their grain is constituted. 



FESTAL VIEWS OF PRINCIPLES. 395 

Man's mind takes to music, to mathematics, to science, 
to philosophy, to poetry, to spirituality, and to the 
realities of eternal life, because his mind is the reposi- 
tory of all principles, in a germinal state, of which all 
immutable truth is composed : Thus — 

The harmonial view is apparent. Men existed before 
bibles and churches! Prelates, bishops, priests, and 
preachers are only men. They may be wise or other- 
wise ; they may be honest or impostors ; they may 
draw intelligence from heaven or from their own self- 
ishness and ambition. The bishops who ■■ rejected" 
the apocryphal books, and who adopted as inspired the 
books now called " holy," were no more qualified as 
authority than would be the same number of merchants, 
mechanics, or lecturers on Spiritualism. Authority is 
invested in the primal principles of the individual spirit. 
" The internal witness " is final, " the still small voice " 
is absolute ; the language of intuition is beyond the 
mistakes of worthy translators ; the verdict of Reason is 
" the voice of God in the garden." 

In the Harmonial Age, when Arabula's light shall 
shine through all things, there will be no constitutional 
authority on religious questions. Neither can infal- 
libility of teaching be expected from any individual ; 
because man is a progressive being, increasingly toiling 
between the world of " Ideas " within and the outlying 
universe of " Things ;" and as no one mind can, accord- 
ing to these principles, perceive and comprehend all 
truth, not even in one line of his boundless realm, so no 
one person can, with any justice or reason, ever assume 
to be " authority " above his fellows in spirituality and 
divine principles ; although it is true now, and it will 



396 THE AKABULA. 

everlastingly continue to be true, that some minds, by 
largeness of capacity, immense susceptibilities, and cor- 
responding industry, may possess more knowledge of 
and be higher developed in science, philosophy, and 
spiritual principles, than others who give these subjects 
little or no attention. 

And thus we have among us at all times " teachers," 
u writers," " mediums," " orators," and " masters," 
qualified to address mankind, to teach the masses, 
and reveal in clear light the pleasant and peaceful path 
of wisdom. 



THE RELIGIOUS VALUE OF SPIRITUALISM. 397 



CHAPTEE LYIII. 

THE RELIGIOUS VALUE OF SPIRITUALISM. 

The fanaticisms and follies of many, in the ranks of 
a new Religious movement, first attract attention. For 
example : Superficial minds couple the " extremes " of 
fanatics with what they have " heard " of the manifes- 
tations called spiritual. A totally false " opinion " is 
thus set up in society. The real genius of Spiritualism, 
meanwhile, is becoming more and more apparent to 
unprejudiced investigators. 

It is the first religion that takes " facts " for its foun- 
dation ; the first religion that rears its temples of thought 
on the immutable principles of philosophy ; the first re- 
ligion that sees a Mother, as well as a Father, in God ; 
the first religion that has demonstrably " brought life and 
immortality to light ; " the first religion that has overcome 
death and the horrors of the grave ; the first religion that 
has sounded the gospel of Freedom equally to woman and 
man, to young and old, to lord and serf ; it is the first 
religion that has satisfactorily explained the phenomena 
of matter and mind, in and out of man ; it is the first 
religion that " is to the manor born," and congenial to 
the true children of Nature ; and it is the first religion 
to free mankind from slavery to creeds and dogmatisms, 
and to give the individual wholly to himself ! 

Spiritualism, consequently, is the enemy of conform- 
ity. It teaches that it is better for a man to think for 






398 THE AEABULA. 

himself, even if he think wrongly, than to conform to 
the tyranny of social selfishness and to the dictum of 
ecclesiastical shams. The ape-epoch among men is 
passing away. " Where the spirit of the Lord is, there 
is liberty " to the individual. 

It is probable, yea, it is certain, that " individualism " 
will also have its follies and fanaticisms. It may lead 
to isolation in some persons ; in others, to selfish acts 
of pride and tyranny ; and it may, for a period, set up 
a barrier to associative efforts, for the progress of the 
multitude ; but these errors will correct themselves, 
while the positive benefits of individualism will come out 
clearer and clearer, like the golden sun from behind the 
clouds. 

Opposition to every new phase in religious develop- 
ment is natural. The world is full of the tragedies of 
antagonism to benefactors. Socrates, taught the Athe- 
nians (who believed in polytheism) the simple " idea " 
of a Supreme Being ; they put him to death. Jesus * 
taught the Jews (great believers in Moses and the"" 
Prophets) the " idea " of higher revelations from God ; 
they pu> him to death. The people of Ethiopia cut St. 
Matthew into pieces with a sword, because he advocated 
the doctrines of the Nazarene. Mark, the next named 
in the Testament, was dragged through the streets of 
Alexandria, in Egypt, and subsequently died in great 
agony. Luke, because he would teach the " blasphe- 
mies " of Jesus, was hung on an olive-tree in Greece. • 
The beloved John, for his religious heresy, died at 
Ephesus only after he had escaped from a caldron of 
boiling oil. James, the great, was beheaded at Jerusalem, 
while the lesser James was thrown headlong from a 



THE KELIGIOUS VALUE OF SPIRITUALISM. 399^ 

pinnacle of the temple. Philip was hanged by the neck 
against a pillar in the streets of Hieropolis. Bartholo- 
mew was flayed alive. Andrew was bonnd to a cross 
for his heresy, and thus addressed his persecutors till he 
expired. A sharp spear was run through the body of 
Thomas. Simon was crucified, as was the Nazarene 
before him ; and Matthias was first stoned and then be- 
headed. Galileo, a disciple of Copernicus, came near 
losing his life for teaching the revolution of the planets. 
Descartes taught the philosophy of "innate ideas." 
For this the University of Paris denounced him as an 
atheist, and ordered that all his books should be burned ! 
Dr. Harvey was treated with scorn, deprived of his 
practice, and driven into exile, because he discovered and 
taught the circulation of the blood ! Dr. Jenner was 
violently denounced and threatened with disgrace, be- 
cause he advocated vaccination as a means of mitigating 
the violence of small-pox ! Columbus, Fulton, Fitch, 
all suffered by the opposition to their several discoveries 
and reforms. Fulton was laughed at and neglected by 
the " respectable " and " intelligent " of his day. The 
ungrateful Frenchmen let Fourier die in extreme indi- 
gence. Examples of folly, prejudice, hatred, condem- 
nation and crucifixion of pioneers in any thing absolutely 
new, need not be multiplied. From an outward stand- 
point this opposition seems " a cross too heavy to be 
borne — " 

" But truth shall conquer at the last, 
For round and round we run, 
And ever the right comes uppermost, 
And ever is justice done." 

Spiritualism, then, viewed from the Harmonial stand- 



400 THE AEABTJLA. 

point, is the last, and therefore the best, development 
of the sublime relations between mankind and the next 
higher sphere of existence. To the opponent only, its 
outward manifestations are incomprehensible ; rappings 
on a piece of furniture, " signifying nothing." But to 
us who live with the " Light," those same sounds are 
the musical beatings of the tides of an infinite sea 
against the forms that cover the shores of a material 
world. Yea, to us they are freighted with the mystic 
loveliness of deathless guardians who inhabit the firma- 
mental spheres ; and with uplifted hearts we hail the 
voices of our loved " departed," whom the benighted 
mourn as " dead," for we behold in them the absolute 
certainty that whatever is human is immortal. 

This, truly, is the grandest religion ever bestowed 
upon mankind. Every mind under these blessings 
should aim to become intelligent, self-poised, well- 
balanced, intuitive, independent, reasonable, charitable, 
just, noble, and progressive in all high directions. 
Gkowth is the central law of our being and the object 
of all exertion, as it will be the result of all experience. 
Such a mind is the firmest supporter of education. It 
will, through growth, u overcome evil with good," and 
straighten the crooked ways of error and injustice. 
These labors and efforts receive the benedictions of 
angel intelligences, as good deeds inevitably attract the 
admiration and co-operation of the generous, intelligent, 
and noble of every age and country. 



LIVING FOR OTHERS. 401 



CHAPTEE LIX. 

LIVING FOR OTHERS. 

God and Nature are one, the Earth is one, and the 
human family is one ; therefore, nothing lives, because 
nothing can live, for itself alone. KBut Arabula dwelleth 
only in the consciousness of those who, lovingly and 
■willingly, live and work for the progression and benefit 
of the whole, -f All work for all by the immutable laws 
of divine necessity, but how blessed to make this 
necessity our choice ! 

We, who live in this very hour, exist only as the 
successors and heirs of the millions and millions de- 
parted, who, long ago, lived and struggled through pain 
and wretchedness to exist and be happy in this world. 
But all selfish natures, while they have fleeting excite- 
ments and sensuous pleasures, are never truly happy. 
The God-feeling goes out of the spirit when selfishness 
grasps the scepter of passion. Do what you will, find 
any company, witness any miracle, take any medicine 
the diplomatized physicians of Church or State offer 
you ; but unless you live to benefit other 's, as well as 
yourself, there is no happiness for you, and you can 
have no positive feeling of God's presence. 

One day I walked abroad with Arabula ; and I saw 
that the word u Good " was written upon the consti- 
tution of every thing. Sometimes, one of the middle 
letters was omitted in the orthography, and then the 



402 THE AKABULA. 

word was, "God." We walked together arm-in-arm 
through many of the fields of infinite goodness and infi- 
nite Wisdom. And behold ! every thing and every con- 
dition was good. The darkest night was as good as the 
brightest day. Death was as good as life ; pain as good 
as pleasure. Selfishness, yea, even selfishness, was 
good ! It lives honestly in the five senses ; it walls in 
the land ; it sows and reaps ; it builds houses ; it gets 
married ; it cultivates the sciences ; it plants gardens j 
it cuts down forests ; it builds roads ; it accumulates 
comforts ; it develops works of arts ; it multiplies the 
species ; it prolongs individual life ; and lastly, accord- 
ing to a natural law, all it does for itself it leaves to 
those who come after ; and so the world's material 
growth is promoted as much by savage selfishness on 
the one hand, as by benevolence and self-sacrifice on 
the other. But, Oh, remember : Only those who lovingly 
and willingly live to benefit the world find true happi- 
ness in the bosom of Nature and God. 

The gladdening consciousness of God can become a 
guest of every human mind. This, and only this, is 
your savior. It will defend you against the strong 
temptations of instinctive passion, and the subtler and 
more deceitful perils of intellectual atheism and false 
ambition. This is the divine Life and the divine Light 
within the vail of the temple. It reveals to you what 
you may hope and expect from, and look for and find 
in, others. There is a happiness in it which the unre- 
surrected intellect is not competent either to grasp, 
analyze, or discern. It is the holy and sanctifying pre- 
sence of Use, Justice, Power, Beauty, Love, Wisdom, 
Truth. Oh exceedingly beautiful ! exceeding grand, 



LIVEDO FOE OTHERS. 403 

uplifting, and abiding, is this consciousness of God ! 
It is altogether clairvoyant, and looking through the 
externals of all life, it sees the saving love, the essen- 
tially divine, the perpetually harmonial and everlasting 
truth, in the verv inmost soul of things. Oh reader ! 
open your higher powers, and welcome to your heart a 
full revelation of The Divine Guest. 



THE EOT). 



AN IMPORTANT NEW WORK IN PRESS, 

BY 

ANDREW JACKSON DAVIS, 

("Will be ready "by Decenober 18, 18670, 

ENTITLED 

A STELLAR KEY 

TO 

THE SUMMER LAND. 

PART I. 

ILLUSTRATED WITH DIAGRAMS AND ENGRAVINGS OF 
CELESTIAL SCENERY. 

This volume contains Scientific and Philosophical evidences of 
the existence of an inhabitable Sphere or Zone among the Suns and 
Planets of Space. It is a very important work for all who wish 
a solid, rational, philosophical foundation on which to rest their 
Eeligion and hopes of a substantial existence after death. 

WILLIAM WHITE & CO., 

158 WASHING-TON ST., 
BOSTON, MASS., 

5U BROADWAY, NEW YORK. 



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